Xoco’s General Hospital with Top-Tier Equipment, Has First Mobile CT Scanner in Latin America: IMSS-Bienestar

ByAlma E. Muñoz and Arturo Sánchez

This article by Alma E. Muñoz and Arturo Sánchez originally appeared in the June 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. IMSS Bienestar carried out a comprehensive renovation of the emergency area of Hospital General Xoco, in Mexico City, with top-tier equipment, such as the first mobile CT scanner in Latin America; a microscope with Artificial Intelligence, a digital X-ray system and a teaching area connected in real time, which positions it as the most important and modern in the region, Alejandro Svarch reported.

At the people’s mañanera he explained that the mobile CT scanner makes it possible that during “the surgical act itself we can perform advanced 3D imaging studies; it is also characterized by attending to cranial trauma across the entire metropolitan network.”

In addition, “we incorporated a new microscope, also with artificial intelligence for our surgeons; a digital X-ray system attached to the ceiling, which is very important because the patient no longer has to move to the X-ray room and the imaging studies can be done in the trauma room itself.”

They also have advanced anesthesia machines, “highly technological, and a classroom that connects in real time with the smart operating room.”

He highlighted that Xoco is a teaching hospital and treats, free of charge, “probably” the largest number of emergencies in the entire country and now has “impressive” technology.

From the Treasury Hall of the National Palace, the incorporated technology was presented remotely. He showed a classroom with a translucent smart glass that, when extended, allows the hospital’s general surgery residents to “join” the operating room in real time.

Doctor Alejandro Ávalos Bracho, director of the Health Care Unit, explained that the surgical innovation center “has three very important pillars: education, diagnosis and treatment” on the same site, essential for teaching.

The center has smart screens on the wall, “which allows us surgeons to stay updated in real time on everything that’s happening inside the operating room.” He elaborated that the equipment that “totally changes surgical times is the CT scanner. We have it inside the room and in less than three minutes we can have real-time images.”

In this way, surgeons, orthopedists, neurosurgeons and thoracic surgeons can “make intraoperative decisions.”

They also have “smart anesthesia machines and something innovative which would already be the third surgical robot we are going to inaugurate in the Bienestar hospitals. This robot allows us to have more than 42 ways of operating, both thoracic and abdominal, and we also have a tower that includes endoscopy” and more.

He stressed that they have incorporated “all the technological equipment in a single place and everything is managed by a single component which is the brain of the surgery room.”