“Patients regularly face long waiting times for scans due to a lack of MRI systems and in the developing world there are many countries that do not have a single MRI unit or have only very old systems in large cities. For a person with a serious injury or illness, it’s not possible to travel hundreds of kilometres to get a diagnosis, let alone be able to afford it.”
A major contributor to the cost of MRI systems is constant cooling of a key part of the system - the magnet - to remain within a set temperature range. To achieve this, the magnet is immersed in a helium ‘bath’. Helium is very expensive and there are concerns about global supply shortages,” Dipak said.
“If a helium-cooled MRI unit has a power outage, the helium boils off, or evaporates, as the magnet heats up. It’s very expensive to refill the cooling chamber and this leads to lengthy downtime during which the system cannot be operated.”
To get around the helium issue, researchers at ISEM, led by ARC Future Fellow Associate Professor Jung Ho Kim, have developed a prototype for a new magnet and cooling system that will enable them to build a low-cost and easy-to-operate MRI system.