Fonar - Open Sky MRI Scanning Machine
Today, when people are in need of MRI exams, many are diligently seeking alternatives to the tunnel-type scanners. They have heard of, or experienced first-hand, the horrors of the highly claustrophobic and noisy tubes of supercon scanners - 'crypts' as some have described them. What people want is a patient-friendly MRI. Now FONAR proudly introduces the FONAR 360°™ - the patient-friendly MRI.
Product Details
The FONAR 360°™is a full-size room with a standard eight-foot ceiling. The magnetic poles of the scanner are located in the center of the room; one of them protrudes from the ceiling and the other from the floor. The patient is comfortably positioned in the large space, or gap, between the two poles and is accessible from any angle.
The OPEN SKY MRI®takes advantage of the extreme openness created by the revolutionary design of this scanner which naturally lends itself to any of FONAR's beautiful OPEN SKY® décors. As can be seen in the accompanying photograph, the walls, floor, ceiling, even the magnetic poles, are decorated with one of several stunning landscape murals. There is even one for children featuring favorite cartoon and nursery rhyme characters.
When patients enter the OPEN SKY MRI® scan room, they immediately experience a sense of vastness and tranquility. Patients enjoy the quietness (attributable to FONAR's patented Whisper Gradients™) and beauty of the oceanfront, the mountains, the Great Plains - whatever the chosen landscape. Patients will tell their friends and family they went to the beach instead of to a frightening tunnel. Few in need of an MRI scan will be able to resist its appeal.
The key to FONAR's success as 'The Patient Friendly MRI™ Company' is its patented Iron-Frame™ technology, which allows FONAR engineers to fully control, contour and direct the magnet's lines of flux in a variety of structural configurations. It also enables the placement of a very high concentration of flux in the patient gap where wanted and almost none away from the magnet where not wanted. In the case of the FONAR 360°™, FONAR engineers created the ultimate in openness by including the floor, ceiling and sidewalls in the iron frame itself. Patients don't realize it, but the scanner room is literally the inside of the MRI magnet. The height of the ceiling is 8 feet; the width of the room is 14 feet; and its depth is unlimited.
Because the FONAR 360º™ offers unrestricted 360-degree access to the patient and provides ample space for a team of surgeons and all its equipment, the scanner is perfectly suited for future MRI-guided surgical and interventional procedures. See the OR-360º™ (The MRI Operating Room) in the Works in Progress section of this website.
Works-in-Progress
Since the FONAR 360° ™ has ample room for an entire surgical team and its equipment, and allows for unrestricted 360-degreee access to the patient, the scanner can be fully outfitted for MRI-guided surgical and interventional procedures. Equipped for this future application, the scanner is called the OR-360°™ (MRI Operating Room).
The OR-360°™(MRI Operating Room) is a full-size room with a standard eight-foot ceiling. The two magnetic poles of the magnet are located in the center of the room. One of them protrudes from the ceiling and the other from the floor, leaving a large gap in which the patient lies. The main structure necessary to confine the MRI's strong magnetic field is located entirely outside of the room. Inside, only the patient is exposed to the main magnetic field. The entire attending medical team works without physical restrictions in a large and relatively magnetic-free environment. The patient can be placed on his back, stomach or side. A special moveable bed allows the patient to be positioned at any height and any angle according to the procedure at hand and the surgeon's preference.
Surgeons have always needed to see more than what meets the eye. Although endoscopic procedures (scopes) have been extremely useful in this regard, they only give surgeons a view of surfaces. But surgeons have the additional need to fully visualize the tissues they are about to cut into. Because of its exquisitely detailed images, MRI meets that need far better than any other modality, providing the surgeon with 3D vision of the interior of the body with sub-millimeter resolution, thereby enabling him to take the appropriate course of action with absolute confidence.
“The OR-360°™ ,says Dr. Raymond V. Damadian, president and chairman of FONAR, “is ideal for minimally invasive therapy. MR-guided probes with hollow bores can deliver a wide variety of therapeutic solutions and treatment agents directly to the pathological tissues. This means that the side effects on healthy tissue need no longer limit the dose of any therapeutic agents, enabling the final dose to be achieved within the tissue with certainty.' He continued, 'The surgeon can, with the MRI, simulate various paths to the target area. Once he determines the best one, he guides his catheter to the target for the delivery of treatment - RF, chemotherapy, microwave, drugs, etc.”
The Dual Purpose Scanner
MRI-guided surgical programs could be costly in their early stages due to low utilization and the extra time physicians need to come up to speed. The OR-360°™ presents the solution to this problem because it is a dual-purpose scanner. When it is not being used for surgery, it can be used, as is, for diagnostics. As a result, the revenues from routine MRI diagnostic scanning can subsidize the surgical program for as long as it takes to stand on its own financial feet.
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