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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neuroimaging
Sec. Neuroimaging Analysis and Protocols
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnimg.2024.1521517
This article is part of the Research Topic Autonomous Low-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Volume II View all articles

Learning to Build Low-Field MRIs for Remote Northern Communities

Provisionally accepted
Gordon Eric Sarty Gordon Eric Sarty 1*Logi Vidarsson Logi Vidarsson 2Christopher Hansen Christopher Hansen 1,3Keifer Corrigal Keifer Corrigal 3Lionel Sutherland Lionel Sutherland 3Millie Jamieson Millie Jamieson 1Micheal Hogue Micheal Hogue 1Haile Kassahun Haile Kassahun 4William Greyeyes William Greyeyes 3David Teixeira David Teixeira 3Lawrence Goertzen Lawrence Goertzen 3Jonathan Mcevoy Jonathan Mcevoy 3Mark Pollard Mark Pollard 3
  • 1 University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
  • 2 LT Imaging Inc., Toronto, Canada
  • 3 Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
  • 4 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Low-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the potential to provide autonomous accessible neuroimaging in remote communities, particularly in the Canadian north. Remoteness necessitates that these MRIs be built and maintained within the communities. This approach not only ensures that the MRIs remain operational but will also allow the youth from the communities to pursue technical careers at home. The first step in this vision is to establish that the technical resources needed for building MRIs are available in remote communities and to establish an educational program that will give students the required technical skills. Over the summer of 2024, a team of students working within an Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) program built the hardware for a wrist-sized prototype MRI. The student team included a high school student, AME students, engineering students and a post doctoral fellow. The skills required to maintain aircraft, namely 3D printing, sheet metal work and electrical harness building, were sufficient to build a low-field MRI. The prototype built was a radio frequency (RF) encoding MRI, whose design was optimized for eventual use in space, but the techniques and procedures developed are applicable to other MRI designs. Furthermore the breadth of students from high school to the post doctoral fellow level facilitated an extremely rich learning environment for the students while they focused on the task of designing and building the prototype MRI. Educational programs around building low-field MRIs can be created at all levels.

    Keywords: accessible MRI, Low-field MRI, RF encoding, stem education, Community self-determination, Northern Healthcare, Space MRI, MRI Construction Techniques

    Received: 01 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sarty, Vidarsson, Hansen, Corrigal, Sutherland, Jamieson, Hogue, Kassahun, Greyeyes, Teixeira, Goertzen, Mcevoy and Pollard. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gordon Eric Sarty, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.