Hallmarq veterinary MRI scanning wins Queen's Award

Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, has transformed hospital diagnostics by its ability to show damage and disease inside the human body, from joints to brains. But the application of MRI scans to veterinary practice has been hard, because animals are so different from people in their body shapes and clinical needs.

Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging, a private company founded 15 years ago in Guildford, is the world leader in adapting MRI to non-human patients and in particular to the most valuable animals of all: horses. It wins dual Queen's Awards, for innovation and for international trade.

"No one else has cracked the technology for MRI for a standing horse," says Jos Belgrave, Hallmarq's chief executive. Seventy-eight of the company's EQ2 machines have been installed with specialist equine vets, veterinary research centres and training stables around the world.

Although Hallmarq has made its name imaging horses' hooves and fetlocks, the company recently launched a quite different MRI machine to scan dogs and cats, which is selling well, according to Mr Belgrave. "We are profitable and the equine business is generating the cash to build up the pets business," he says.

Hallmarq's turnover, just over £4m last year, is heading for about £6m this year, he says, with exports accounting for 75-80 per cent of this. The business model involves Hallmarq renting out rather than selling its equine equipment; fees are charged per scan, giving the company a regular income, while customers can be confident that their scanners are consistently upgraded to the latest model as the technology improves.

The company is recruiting technical staff for its small but growing workforce, with 28 people currently employed. It has raised £7.75m to date in a series of funding rounds from 100 or so private shareholders, who are mainly wealthy individuals with equestrian interests.

Lameness is the bane of equine life. In showjumping the problem is normally within the hoof, while racehorses are more likely to suffer pain and stress slightly higher up in the fetlock. MRI can pinpoint the causes - whether the damage is to bones, joints, ligaments, cartilage or muscle - because, unlike alternative scanning techniques such as X-rays and ultrasound, it shows up both hard and soft tissues.

Until Hallmarq developed its machine, the only way to use MRI on a horse was to anaesthetise the animal first - a procedure with a surprisingly high risk of complications. Now the horse has only to be lightly sedated, a much safer process, and made to stand for an hour of so while the C-shaped MRI instrument scans its lower leg.

A substantial research and development effort was needed to obtain sharp images reliably from the system - including a special motion-correcting algorithm that adjusts for the gentle swaying of a standing horse.

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