Former Green Bay Packers star LeRoy Butler is known for being fearless on the field, but when it comes to getting an MRI, the giant defensive safety feels just like many people half his size — claustrophobic. That’s why he’s helping to spread the word as a patient spokesperson for GE Healthcare’s new larger diameter scanner, which was officially launched today.
Who doesn’t like bigger doughnuts? In traditional scanners, the “doughnut” in which the patient fits has a diameter of about 60 centimeters. The new GE system increases that space to 70 cm. That extra 10 cm is not only a huge space to a claustrophobic or obese patient, but it marks an extremely challenging technological hurdle — that of maintaining advanced image quality in a larger system.
Thinking big: NFL great LeRoy Butler, who had an 11-year career with the Packers ending in 2001, said at the launch press conference: “I’m here to speak on behalf of all the patients out there who are claustrophobic.” He said he’s tried out the new scanner and “I’m very happy to know it’s there.”
Jim Davis, general manager of MR for GE Healthcare, explained: “Roughly 1 out of 5 patients has a very, very difficult time handling the bore size of our system today for one or two reasons. One, because of the obesity trends in this country — they’re either too big to get into the scanner itself, or two, even normal-sized patients like myself or LeRoy, have a difficult time holding still. The fear of being inside one of these scanners for 40 or 45 minutes — the feeling of being trapped — is a very, very unpleasant feeling.”
While other so-called “wide bore” scanners are already on the market, there can be trade-offs in image quality. “GE has overcome the traditional limitations that sacrificed image quality for size of scan,” says Dr. A. Joseph Borelli, Jr., president and medical director at Belfair Medical Clinic in Bluffton, S.C.
Omar Ishrak, CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, discusses the new system in the audio clip below:
One of GE’s other MR systems is also being noted for the way in which it’s helping tackle patient concerns about claustrophobia. In our recent story about five GE Healthcare technologies that won medals at the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards, GE’s Discovery MR was cited for minimizing patient anxiety by using a detachable table that can be transported. It allows doctors to consult with patients and perform their setup work prior to going into the MRI room — thereby decreasing the amount of time spent with the scanner.
As one of the doctors who uses the Discovery MR at Mount Sinai Medical Center told GE: “There is nothing worse than a period of dead time — when the tech walks outside of the room and enters the data, finds the scan and starts — to make a patient go claustrophobic. That ability to immediately be able to start the scan within the room while you are still with the patient is enormous.”
* Read today’s announcement
* Read “Helping the docs at the nation’s largest free clinic”
* Learn about GE’s healthymagination strategy on cost, quality and access
* Read about GE’s work with clinics in India
* Read about GE’s donation of neonatal equipment in the U.K.
* Read GE Reports’ coverage of the healthymagination launch
* Read about GE’s Electronic Medical Records technology
* Read GE Reports’ story about our Health Advisory Board
* Read about healthymagination’s work with electronic medical records
* Read about our healthymagination work in Bangladesh
* Learn more about the partnership with Grameen Healthcare Trust
* Learn about our work in Cambodia
* Read our story about GE’s localized healthcare technology breakthroughs going global
* Read “GE systems boost cancer center case capacity by 900”
