Philips today announced its next-generation 1.5T BlueSeal MR wide-bore scanner will be unveiled at RSNA 2024. The latest generation scanner features a 70 cm wide-bore design and integrates AI-enabled MR Smart Workflow solutions, designed to enhance access and diagnostic confidence to improve outcomes for more patients. The MR Smart Workflow solutions increase daily patient throughput without compromising diagnostic quality.
Philips’ Smart Reading technology is a cloud-based AI toolset that integrates imaging and reading on the MR scanner. In partnership with computer-aided diagnostics company Icometrix for neurological indications like Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis, and imaging biomarker specialist Quibim for prostate cancer, Smart Reading drives diagnosis by providing fully automated AI-based quantitative reports.
Also differentiating Philips is the eco-friendly design of the BlueSeal MRI with helium-free operations, making it the lightest 1.5T 70cm MRI system available today. Up to 1700kg lighter and no need for a vent pipe, it enables flexible installations in new locations, including elevated floors or indoor sites with construction limitations.
- SmartExam automates MRI exam planning, scanning, and processing for up to 80% of procedures, ensuring consistency and reproducibility in imaging outcomes;
- SmartFit coils give technologists freedom to position the ultra-light weight coils with flexible bending greater than 90 degrees, while taking patient comfort to the next level
- SmartSpeed offers up to 65% higher image resolution [3] without added scan time, or up to three times faster scans [3] and is compatible with 97% of clinical protocols
- SmartQuant AI-enhanced quantitative MR solution generates fast, high-quality, quantitative MR images for multiple anatomies including brain, spine, MSK, liver and heart to generate more objective diagnostic information in very short scan times
- SmartReading’s unique integration of imaging and reading capabilities on the MR scanner enables fully automated 0-click [9] generation of AI-based quantitative reports.
Preloaded with only 7 liters of helium – which never needs refilling, even in the event of an emergency shutdown – Philips has saved nearly 2.75 million liters to date. While needing only a fraction of a typical scanner’s helium volume, the 7 liters in a BlueSeal scanner also has a high thermal capacity to keep the magnet cold and super conductive for more than 4 hours in the event of a power outage – a critical consideration in many locations worldwide. Philips BlueSeal MRI systems are also designed to minimize vital energy consumption and reduce a center’s carbon footprint, helping to meet both financial and environmental goals by saving nearly 40mWh in energy per year.
