Hyperfine and Yale to Collaborate on World’s First Portable MRI

Hyperfine Research Inc. will collaborate with the Yale School of Medicine to pioneer the use of the world’s first portable, low-cost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system at the bedside of patients in the neuro intensive care unit of Yale New Haven Hospital. Hyperfine’s system can move directly to the bedside, plug into a wall outlet, and operate in any healthcare setting. In inventing Point-of-Care (POC) MRI, Hyperfine aims to make MRI accessible and available anywhere, anytime, to any patient who needs it.
 
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is the first hospital to use the Hyperfine POC MRI system on patients, as part of a 2-year study in conjunction with the American Heart Association. This study aims to overcome barriers that have prevented the routine use of MRI on unstable neurology intensive care unit patients who cannot be transported.
 
“The MRI systems we currently use around the world require a strict, limited access environment due to their high-field magnet design,” said Kevin N. Sheth, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery. “The result is that we’ve taken a very safe technology and made it very difficult for patients and clinicians to access it. I’m excited to be part of a project that is finding a way to bring MRI to patients in a feasible, safe, and efficient way. The availability and accessibility of a portable MRI scanner has allowed us to test some patients with multiple MRI exams over a time span of hours to days. This could open up a new level of access to the rich data MRI brings, and that could have a significant impact on how we care for patients.”
 
YNHH is helping test the clinical workflow, user interface, and image quality of Hyperfine’s system. YNHH has been using the Hyperfine POC MRI to scan patients with known brain pathology including hemorrhages, ischemic stroke, hematomas, tumors, and edema. As a comparison, they are also collecting anonymized versions of standard-of-care MRI and CT scans of the same patients. To date, YNHH has completed 138 brain MRI exams of 123 patients with known, acute neuropathology, as well as ischemic stroke, hematomas, tumors, and hydrocephalus. Preliminary findings of the research are expected to be announced in early 2020.
 
“As Hyperfine’s first clinical partner, Yale is helping us to change how medicine is practiced with point-of-care MRI. Yale’s early experience with the system will guide us as we seek to revolutionize medical imaging by making MRI more accessible,” said Jonathan M. Rothberg, Founder & Chairman of Hyperfine Research.