A Cheap, Plastic X-Ray Imager

Siemens claims:

"The Siemens system has a quantum efficiency of about 75 percent; in other words, for every 100 photons that hit the diode, 75 will be registered. "That's pretty good," says Jackson."

Always good to throw in a vague unsupported cynical 'feeling' about greed keeping reduced costs from flowing to consumers.

Well, you're right.

If an x-ray machine goes from $10,000 to $2,000 SHOULD it mean that x-rays will follow Moore's laws?  No, of course not.

Since taking an x-ray isn't just about the machine.  I don't know the exact breakdown but a large chunk of it is the MA or radiologic technician's time setting up the gear and Pt for an x-ray, positioning Pt to get the right part of the body at the right angle.  Also knowing what part to take pix of. 

An idiot might be able to take every possible angle (called an MRI or CAT scan) but that is a huge dose of radiation greater than just one cross section when is not needed.

So given that the human side is a great expense and Moore isn't cranking us out any cheaper (Except during this downturn).  then there is the support circuitry of semiconductor in the x-ray machine, and all the other electronic gear controlling it and firmware isn't going to change.

Then housing the x-ray machine, calibrating, building a place to house it that is shielded from frying everyone nearby (I know nurses this has actually happened to thru inadequate shielding).  Hospital and Dr's buildings aren't being made any cheaper by this advance.

And a specialist or Dr to interpret the results will not go down in price due to this.

This comment reminds me of a friend who seems to think that everything costs about $.75 to make in an anonymouse factory in China or India.  That would great if 'everything' could be shipped on container ships for free and stored and trucked for free and if store employees or UPS drivers all would bring it to you for free.

There you go!   Your cynical comment has been dissected and found to be essentially correct!

However this should lead to more clinics and other places being able to afford x-ray machines, and a slowing of increases due to other costs (personnel, rent, etc) which actually make up the bulk of the costs.  The ability to shape the emitter should also help make new innovative diagnostic tools with lower x-ray exposures and (even if slightly) lower costs.