Global health IT vendor Siemens Healthineers strongly believes that improving access to magnetic resonance imaging is crucial to advancing health equity.

MRI – used for diagnosing a majority of ailments ranging from heart disease to cancer – is both significantly more expensive than most imaging tools and isn't readily available in all communities. For these reasons, Siemens Healthineers says it is focused on increasing MRI access by:

• Partnering with community clinics and health centers to bring MRI closer to the patients who need it most, in both rural and urban areas.

• Designing machines that are more affordable for the smaller community hospitals or health centers that provide care in underserved areas.

• Pioneering tech innovations to increase access, such as MRIs with decreased field strength – while maintaining image quality – which are more accessible.

Healthcare IT News spoke with Wes Gilson, senior director, magnetic resonance business development at Siemens Healthineers, to discuss MRI and health equity.

Q. How exactly is improving access to magnetic resonance imaging so crucial to advancing health equity?

A. MRI has established itself as one of the most powerful diagnostic tools and is widely used to help determine the absence or presence and extent of a disease or condition.

Some countries lack a single MRI scanner. Some Americans live in communities more than 100 miles away from the nearest MRI. Others struggle with the expense of an MRI. Still others may be too large to undergo an MRI exam on a traditionally narrow-bored system.

Siemens Healthineers is committed to developing MR systems that not only expand MRI's capabilities and efficiency, but also lower the barrier for healthcare providers and communities that previously lacked the means to own and operate an MRI.

Q. You suggest access to MRI can be increased by hospitals and health systems partnering with community clinics and health centers to bring MRI closer to the patients who need it most, in both rural and urban areas. Please elaborate.

A. Numerous hospitals and health systems are expanding their community outreach by creating community clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and other outside-the-hospital care facilities. Not only does this type of outreach more strongly solidify their community presence, but it promises to raise patient compliance and elevate wellness care.

In MRI's case, providing outpatient diagnostic imaging services in the community creates a valuable convenience for patients by reducing the time needed in their schedule and simplifying the overall process.

Moreover, it reduces the hospital's outpatient imaging burden, allowing them to focus more on providing diagnostic services for more critically ill inpatients. The COVID-19 pandemic has further supported the desire by hospitals and patients to undergo outpatient MRI away from hospitals.

Q. You also say access to MRI can be increased by designing machines that are more affordable for the smaller community hospitals or health centers that provide care in underserved areas. How can this be done?

A. Many smaller facilities may not have the same volumes as larger facilities or are in less affluent communities where payment/reimbursement-per-scan challenges them to be profitable or even break even with other systems that have a higher total cost of ownership.

Currently, many of these smaller community hospitals may leverage mobile MRI services to provide support on certain days of the week. Although this may not be ideal for providing the most timely, convenient imaging diagnosis, this service is the best these hospitals can currently support for their communities.

With the advent of MRI systems that have a lower total cost of ownership – construction costs plus product costs plus operating costs – the threshold for owning and operating a scanner becomes more manageable.

Q. And you further suggest access to MRI can be increased by health IT vendors pioneering technology innovations to increase access, such as MRIs with decreased field strength – while maintaining image quality – which are more accessible. Please detail what you mean, and how it would help.

A. As I alluded to, access to MRI may be limited in many ways, including barriers of a geographical (too far away), economic (too expensive), physical (patient too large) and emotional (claustrophobia) nature. Addressing those access barriers collectively can be quite difficult.

We addressed them by designing a new MRI scanner with an ultra-wide 80cm opening to provide a more open, less claustrophobic experience, and accommodate some of the largest patients who may have been unable to fit in MRI scanners previously.

Beyond addressing these physical and emotional challenges, the new scanner reduces the total cost of ownership, starting with system installation and maintenance costs. This feat was accomplished by reducing the scanner's overall size and eliminating the need for large volumes of liquid helium to maintain the superconductive magnetic field.

To maintain a high level of performance, the system includes the latest advanced hardware (magnet, gradient, coil) and software (rapid acquisition, AI-based reconstruction, workflow guidance) technologies, ensuring that it is not just about making the system more accessible, but also about delivering high-quality diagnostic results to ensure equity in care.