New Delhi: A gas you rarely think about is disrupting the MRI supply chain in India. Helium shortages linked to West Asia have tightened availability in India and driven up costs, increasing the risk of costly scans and delayed diagnoses.Since India is heavily dependent on imports from Qatar for non-renewable gas used to cool MRI magnets, hospitals and imaging centers are bracing for tight supplies, even as inventory remains low and global logistics have become unstable. Pawan Chaudhary, president of the Medical Technology Association of India, told TOI that with Qatar contributing almost one-third of the global supply, any sustained disruption will have a direct impact on MRI services and allied applications globally, and the early price signals are worrying. As a byproduct of natural gas processing, helium supply moves along with LNG production, so the disruption in Qatar is now making global availability difficult. Although there is no clearly visible disruption, the risks are clearly increasing. An executive at a medtech company said globalized medtech supply chains are vulnerable to prolonged volatility in West Asia and supply chain costs are rising rapidly. Additionally, since the supply of helium is naturally limited, many companies have moved towards developing helium-free MRI machines over the past few years.Hariharan Subramanian, Managing Director, Siemens Healthcare, said, “There has been limited impact on helium availability in view of the disruption due to geopolitical situation. We have already introduced helium free MRI with active adoption of DryCool technology. “This helium-efficient approach reduces gas dependency and minimizes service disruptions.” According to Arjun Arunachalam, founder of Bengaluru-based medtech startup VoxelGrids, although helium prices are around $80 per cubic meter in some markets, our company remains untouched because we manufacture helium-free imaging systems. Furthermore, the impact of the conflict has also spread to the domestic medical device industry, with manufacturers warning of possible shortages of essential hospital consumables including IV bags and lines, urine bags, cannulae, syringes as early as next month. With barely 15-20 days of inventory, manufacturers have warned of disruption in supplies to hospitals.The pressure has increased due to shortages of industrial gas used in boilers and rising energy costs, forcing companies to rely on more expensive diesel or electricity alternatives.