When the system is on line, it will replace a mobile MRI on wheels.
NORWAY – An expanded Imaging Department will have the latest in MRI technology as part of the new addition at Stephens Memorial Hospital.
The new magnetic resonance scanner was made possible by a $1.5 million gift from an anonymous donor, and features the most advanced magnet technology available in the country today.
The only other hospital in the state with such an advanced MRI system is Maine Medical Center in Portland, said Tim Ingram, director of SMH’s Imaging Department.
The new Signa Infinity 1.5T MRI system not only performs routine procedures like brain and spine imaging, it also has the ability to perform advanced applications like vascular and cardiac imaging. And, it is designed to be upgraded as needed.
Ingram said the vascular scans will replace the more invasive procedure of injecting dye into the veins. In diagnosing cardiac disease, the magnet can read the amount of calcium in the heart.
“It will give an idea of how much heart disease there is,” Ingram said.
When the new MRI system is on line, it will replace a mobile MRI on wheels that was available at the hospital twice a week. Construction of the new addition is expected to be finished in a few months.
“Having a permanent MRI system for use by medical staff will more than double the hospital’s capacity to provide this important diagnostic procedure,” Geary said.
The hospital will be able to schedule routine MRIs five days a week, and radiologists and certified MRI technicians will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for emergency needs, said Tracey Geary, the hospital’s director of development.
The Imaging Department will also have a nuclear medicine camera.
“For a community hospital our clinical capabilities are really cutting edge,” said Geary.
The new MRI system will also replace exploratory surgery that has traditionally been used to diagnose pancreas and gallbladder problems, Ingram said. The hospital has hired two registered MRI technicians to operate the system, manufactured by GE Medical Systems.
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