Turner Imaging Systems

Turner Imaging Systems builds portable X-ray devices that doctors bring to the patient rather than the other way around. The company’s flagship SMART-C is a 16-pound device that lets surgeons capture live X-ray video during a procedure—the kind of real-time imaging an orthopedic surgeon uses to set a fracture or guide a needle. The same job has historically required a 400-pound machine on wheels that fills half an operating room and needs its own power outlet. SMART-C runs on a battery for up to eight hours, sets up in any exam room, and pairs with a tablet that the surgeon controls with a foot pedal. It received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2019 and has been deployed on NFL sidelines, in military field operations, and on humanitarian missions in Liberia. The newer ENDURO DR system is a portable digital X-ray for still images of bones and limbs: a six-pound emitter shaped like a digital camera, a wireless detector panel, and a laptop that captures the image. Both devices export to the same image-storage systems hospitals already use, so X-rays taken with a Turner device land in the patient's chart alongside everything else.

Turner sells its devices in two ways. Customers can buy a SMART-C or ENDURO outright through the company’s direct sales channel. Turner also offers a hybrid hardware-as-a-service subscription option in partnership with the medical equipment financing firm Med One Group. In this model, customers receive a SMART-C for a low monthly payment with a one-year minimum commitment, after which they can return the device or renew. The subscription bundles the device, the tablet interface, ongoing support, and the service plan into a single recurring bill, removing the multi-thousand-dollar capital outlay that has historically kept smaller surgical centers and orthopedic clinics from adopting this kind of imaging at all. The structure is built for clinics that want to start with a single device without committing to a multi-year lease, and for buyers exploring portable imaging for the first time before deciding whether to purchase.