Tuesday, April 12, 2011

NEW HIGH TECH MRI ARRIVES AT SIGNATURE HEALTHCARE

Signature HealthCare-Brings High Quality and Comfort to Patients Who Need Magnetic Resonance Scans


Signature Healthcare now offers one of the most advanced diagnostic tools for helping physicians reach confident diagnoses and helping patients feel more comfortable during MR scans. The new Optima MR450w system from GE Healthcare has a 70 cm opening (wide-bore) so virtually all patients, especially larger patients, or patients who do not like the feeling of being closed in can feel more at ease during a scan. Unlike many previous wide-bore systems, this system from GE has advanced capabilities and delivers uncompromised image quality.

“The addition of the Optima MR450w system complements and extends the range of quality diagnostic services that Signature Healthcare offers to the Greater Brockton community,” said Susan Boulanger, Director, Imaging Services. “Some patients can present special challenges when undergoing MR testing. The wide-bore system has excellent image quality and imaging speed, but equally as important, allows our patients who don’t like small spaces or don’t fit in traditional scanners to be more easily imaged and diagnosed with high quality scans.”

The Optima MR450w system is the first wide-bore scanner in GE Healthcare’s long line of MR innovations. Traditionally, wide-bore scanners had limitations, namely compromised image quality. GE took a bit more time to introduce their wide-bore system because they wanted to deliver a system without compromise.

Originally developed in the late 1970s, from discoveries made in the 1940s, MR scans combine the power of magnetic and radio frequency fields, allowing physicians to view the tissue structure of internal anatomy without exploratory surgery. MR exams are used when people are ill or injured, or when a physician suspects a medical problem that is not easily detectable from a conventional physical examination. The GE Optima MR450w system is used to non-invasively scan head, neck, TMJ, spine, breast, heart, abdomen, pelvis, joints, prostate, blood vessels, and musculoskeletal regions of the body.

For more information, please visit www.MySignatureCare.org/Imaging.

About Signature Healthcare
Signature Healthcare includes Brockton Hospital as well as Signature Medical Group - 150 physicians and other direct care providers - and a total of 2,500 employees operating from locations in Abington, Bridgewater, Brockton, Randolph, Raynham, Stoughton and West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. In 2008 and 2010, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital received the Premier Award for Quality, ranking it in the top 1% of all acute care hospitals in the country.