The climate changed considerably when the installation team for the MinXray Inc. and Qure.ai project—(left to right) Sahil Chachad, associate director engineering, Qure.ai; Dr. Ellen Stein M.D. MBA, Himalayan Rescue Association; Michael Cairnie, Director of Global and Government Sales, MinXray Inc.; Prashant Warier, cofounder and CEO, Qure.ai; and Lakpa Sherpa, Himalayan Rescue Association — made it to the southeast base camp at Mount Everest. (Qure.ai and MinXray Inc. / HANDOUT)

Mount Everest’s southeast base camp is one of the most out-of-the-way places on the planet. That made it an ideal location for Michael Cairnie, Director of Global and Government Sales for Northbrook-based MinXray Inc., to prove the ability of his company’s Impact battery-powered portable digital radiography system to work in even the most remote areas in the world.

Cairnie journeyed to Nepal in April with representatives from India-based Qure.ai, provider of artificial intelligence for the radiography system.

Northbrook-based MinXray Inc. brought its Impact battery-powered portable digital radiography system to the southeast base camp at Mount Everest to prove that it could be used at remote locations. (MinXray Inc. / HANDOUT)

The project was not because of the sale of a system, North Carolina resident Cairnie explained. “It was an effort to draw attention to global health care equity,” he said. “The trip was organized by Dr. Saurabh Jha, who is a thoracic radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania. His intent was to try to find one of the most remote locations he could think of, bring the X-ray device, along with the artificial intelligence component, and use social media to spread this concept that, in the scope of global health care and equity, why people don’t have equal access to care is no longer a question of technology.”

This mission wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago, according to Cairnie because the amount of equipment that would have been needed, and the amount of energy that would have been required to do X-rays would have been prohibitive.

The trip took nine days. “When you travel at that elevation, it’s customary to try to do about 500 meters in elevation per day and every other day you do an overnight at that spot to climatize to the altitude,” Cairnie explained.

The elevation of the Mount Everest’s southeast base camp is 17,598 feet.

The route to the base camp impressed the group. “It was an absolutely beautiful trek,” Cairnie said. “The region is gorgeous. The trails are full of people that are passionate for the area. It’s pristine.”

It was difficult, though, because of the amount of uphill walking, Cairnie noted.

Getting the equipment to the base came was not as difficult as you might expect, though.

“The X-ray equipment goes in a backpack,” Cairnie said. The machine and all other necessary pieces weigh a total of 45 pounds.

Nevertheless, the group hired Sherpas to carry their equipment.

“Hiking at that altitude and being able to carry your own equipment is impossible for somebody that isn’t remarkably physically-fit,” Cairnie explained.

Weather-wise the trip to the base camp started at an almost hot temperature. That changed drastically as they climbed because the base camp sits on a glacier. On that glacier, they saw 70 or 80 tents spread out.

The Himalayan Rescue Association has a tent there. “It’s a clinic staffed by a doctor from Vermont,” Cairnie said. The installation team took an x-ray of that doctor, proving that the machine could indeed operate in a remote area. Because of the artificial intelligence engineered by Qure.ai, the device was able to read that X-ray.

The Impact battery-powered portable digital radiography system created by Northbrook-based MinXray Inc., with artificial intelligence by India-based Qure.ai, proved that it could operate in remote locations when an installation team was able to take an X-ray of the doctor from the Himalayan Rescue Association at the southeast base camp of Mount Everest. (Qure.ai and MinXray Inc. / HANDOUT)

The team did not leave the machine at the base camp but having an Impact device there would have facilitated the doctor’s decision of whether a person feeling sick or suffering an injury needs to be evacuated by helicopter from the base camp.

Because the team proved that it could be done, it is hoped that donor global organizations will consider purchasing machines for remote areas that haven’t had access to that technology before.

MinXray applied to get the achievement in the Guinness Book of World Records but hadn’t heard if it was accepted at press time.

“The trip to base camp was a wow factor in a much larger trip,” Cairnie reported. “We stopped at five different hospitals as we trekked through the mountains to get to the base camp. Most of those hospitals didn’t have any medical imaging at all.”

Showing that it was possible to get the equipment to base camp on Mount Everest proved that it would be possible to get that equipment to all the small hospitals on the way there, Cairnie noted.

“It was quite an experience,” he concluded, “but it’s not atypical of what I do. I’ve put X-ray machines in almost 50 countries. I’ve X-rayed everything from elephants in Thailand to the space suit that Buzz Aldrin wore when he walked on the moon. While Everest bass camp is quite an accomplishment, it’s in line with what I do on a weekly basis.”

Following the Mount Everest trip, Cairnie installed four machines in Uganda and one machine in Nigeria.

“The next big thing for us is we are taking our device on a Zero-G flight,” Cairnie announced. “We’re testing the ability to put a device like this on the next mission to Mars.”

Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.