Medical infrared imaging - differentiating facts from fiction, and the impact of high precision quantum well infrared photodetector camera systems, and other factors, in its reemergence

Through most of the 1970s infrared medical imaging was viewed as an exciting and very promising new imaging technology, for a variety of potential diagnostic applications, by the US clinical community. Infrared technology subsequently disappeared from US medical practice. This was due to a number of reasons including inflated expectations, technical immaturity as well as substantial amount of misinformation. But new technical developments, such as high precision quantum well infrared photodetector camera systems, and the changing commercial and political environment, are ushering in a renaissance of medical infrared imaging. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.