Intraoperative MRI

Overview

The year 2008 was an interesting year for the iMRI program. Last year, the program celebrated its 10th year of operation in December.  Early this year, the program marked another milestone- treating over one thousand patients in the iMRI suite.  The iMRI program successfully raised full funding (~$10M) to allow the Advancing iMRI initiative to occur. The prototype 1.5T iMRI system was upgraded to an IMRIS-Siemens 3T platform based on the world’s first ceiling mounted 3T magnet. The MR system includes high performance gradients and a working aperture of 70cm.

Planning for the upgrade began in March 2008 requiring considerable input from CHR Planning and Development, architects from McKay Hlavacek, Ledcor as the lead contractor and various subcontractors. In June of 2008 the iMRI suite was closed and construction was completed by December 2008.

Members

Project Leader

Garnette Sutherland

NRC Scientists

Boguslaw Tomanek
David Hoult
Scott King
Calvin Bewsky

University of Calgary investigators (not inclusive)

Alex Greer
All members of the Division of Neurosurgery
Oliver Bathe
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Phil Park
Andrew Maitland
Mark Hudon
Carla Wallace
Mayank Goyal
Will Morish

Residents

All residents within the Division of Neurosurgery

Research Interests

• Application of iMRI to neurosurgery
• Whole body application of iMRI technology
• Molecular imaging
• Robotics

Grant Support

• Alberta Advanced Education and Technology
• Western Economic Diversification
• Calgary Health Trust
• Significant in-kind support from Alberta Health Services, NRC Institute for Biodiagnostics, and IMRIS