Magnetic resonance imaging is no longer confined to radiology departments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it has provided clearance to the "world's first" bedside MRI system, according to an announcement.
Hyperfine said it will begin shipping its portable, low-field modalities this summer. It's 510(k) clearance falls on the same day that Yale researchers reported the device can accurately and safely image patient's brains for stroke. Those preliminary results are set to be presented next week at the American Stroke Association's International conference in Los Angeles, the group announced.
"We've flipped the concept from having to get patients to the MRI to bringing the MRI to the patients," said Kevin Sheth, MD, senior author and a chief physician at Yale School of Medicine. "This early work suggests our approach is safe and viable in a complex clinical care environment."
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
New bedside MRI for $50K
This is an amazing machine. A magnetic resonance imaging scanner that fits on a trolley like an ultrasound machine, can be wheeled around the hospital by one or two people, and costs $50,000. Price of a car. Wow.
If this pans out, a lot of people will have their lives saved by cheap and easy MRI scans.
In the United States, anyway. Look for Canadian approval to be decades away. A diagnosis means you have to treat the patient. Better not to have a scanner handy. #Rationing.
I recall reading a book of various experiments and such, dated 1960 or so (maybe 1959) with a Foreword by Vannevar Bush (head of the Manhattan Engineering District, under which was the Manhattan Project..) that had, amongst other things - including a 'star twinkle suppressor' (crude active/adaptive optics!) a bit about rigging up a ham radio somehow to do a crude bit of nuclear magnetic resonance detection. DETECTION. That was all. And notes that nobody knew of what use this might be put to, but there was likely something.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the 1980's, someone (or a few someones...) who HAD to be completely nuts set about using this newly available computational power for.. IMAGING. Why, they had to be mad... oh.. it WORKED? WOW! GENIUS! Huge, strong magnets... but no X-rays! And look at what we can look at!
And now.. this.
Reminds me of the story of a WWI fundraiser.
NOTE: *story*
Truth coefficient: UNKNOWN
A big...a BIG.. no, a BEEEG show. *EVERYBODY* who was anybody had been on stage, so the story goes, and then the emcee/announcer, tops it, with the declaration... "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Yeah. We ain't seen nothin' yet!
Hi Orvan,
ReplyDeleteImagine the fricking hand-held version. Comes standard on the iPhone 47! ~:D