Freelium

Setting Helium Free: Revolutionary MRI Tech

Helium, a critical component in MRI systems, has gone through two potential shortage crises, impacting hospitals and patients around the globe. But the helium supply is finite and demand has been rising over the past decades. At #RSNA16, GE Healthcare proudly unveils Freelium*, a magnet technology designed to use one percent of liquid helium compared to conventional MRI magnets. Instead of the average 2,000 liters of precious liquid helium, Freelium is designed to use only about 20 liters.

Helium exchange
Helium exchange
Photo: Setting Helium Free: Revolutionary MRI Tech

MRI uses superconducting magnets cooled to -452 degrees F in order to take hi-def pictures of a patient’s brain, vital organs, or soft tissue. The only way to keep MRI magnets currently in clinical use that cold is by using thousands of liters of liquid helium mined from below the earth’s crust. Magnets with Freelium technology are designed to be less dependent on helium, much easier to site, and eco-friendly. Thanks to Freelium technology, hospitals would no longer need extensive venting that often necessitates siting a magnet in a separate building or newly constructed room.

Additionally, a Freelium magnet would not need any refilling during transportation nor throughout its lifetime. Therefore, when the Freelium technology is integrated into a commercialized product in the future, it could make MRI more accessible and less expensive to site and operate. This is particularly important in developing regions that lack necessary infrastructure, and in major metropolitan cities where siting a magnet can cost more than the magnet itself. Patients who currently do not have access to the diagnostic benefits of MRI today may have access in the future due to this breakthrough technology.

“At GE Healthcare, we work to solve our customer’s biggest problems,” said Stuart Feltham, magnet engineering leader of GE Healthcare MR. “The fact that MRIs require so much liquid helium adds cost, complication, and makes the systems difficult to install; Freelium technology is designed to aggressively address these challenges. It’s a revolutionary advance for the industry and we look forward to integrating Freelium technology into MRI systems so clinicians and their patients can benefit from it in the near future. There is still more than 70 percent of world’s population with no access to MRI. Our vision is to leverage this low-helium technology to increase world-wide accessibility of MRI so that more people can benefit from its diagnostic capabilities.”

For more informations on GE Healthcare at #RSNA16 visit www.gehealthcare.com/rsna2016


Source: GE Healthcare

28.11.2016

More on the subject:More on companies:

Related articles

Photo

Article • Patient front and centre

One-Stop Clinic: diagnosis and treatment in one day, on one site, by one team

Cancer – one word that turns the patients’ world upside down. In addition to uncertainty and fear, they often face an unnerving series of exams and treatments. With its new One-Stop Clinic…

Photo

Sponsored • Deep Learning in Radiology

New Levels of Precision with Self-learning Imaging Software

The complex form of machine learning DLIR (Deep Learning Image Reconstruction) is based on a deep neuronal network which is similar to the human brain. The artificial neurons of this network learn…

Photo

Interview • Algorithms in radiology

AI in diagnostics: Smart scans are the future

AI algorithms are making their way not just into diagnostic workstations, but will also in future be found in the diagnostic methods themselves. Prof. Mathias Goyen, Chief Medical Officer Europe at…

Related products

Subscribe to Newsletter