Siemens will introduce a compact 1-tesla MRI scanner next week at the Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging meeting in Chicago. The vendor claims its new offering will fit in more places than most mid-field scanners.
The space requirement for the actively shielded system, labeled Magnetom Impact, is 450 square feet, down from over 750 square feet for Siemens' existing 1-tesla unit, said Chris Ruebeck, MRI product manager.
Trimmer siting specifications have been achieved partially through the use of a modified active-shield magnet design from Oxford, Siemens' majority-controlled magnet supplier. Siemens has also made overall design changes in the system, such as reducing the number of computer/electronics cabinets from five to three, he said.
The active-shield magnet was formerly offered as an option for the 1-tesla Magnetom, at an additional cost of about $125,000. That feature is now standard on the Impact, offsetting a slightly higher overall price, Ruebeck said.
Hospital customers have proved willing to spend more to gain the better image quality of a high-field versus mid-field MRI system. Unfortunately, greater siting costs combined with the higher ticket price of a 1-tesla system often pushed the overall cost too high, he said.
MRI costs are reduced when less hospital space is needed for an installation. Siemens has also cut its installation time for the Impact to about four weeks, compared to an industry average of six to eight weeks. Impact's lighter weight trims structural reinforcement requirements as well, he said.
In addition to cost concerns, the proliferation of MRI systems has resulted in more requests by hospitals to fit scanners into tighter spaces, Ruebeck said.
Siemens' goal for the Impact was to reduce the space requirement for Impact below that of major mid-field MRI competitors, Ruebeck said. Both GE's MR Max and Philips' T5 require more space, he said.
