Like any appliance, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner needs care and attention to keep it running strong. And in these days of rising healthcare costs, retooling costs a whole lot less than replacing.

That’s why the UK National Health Service (NHS) is endorsing Siemens Healthcare’s Total Imaging Matrix, or Tim, upgrades to extend the life of existing MRI infrastructure, according to a story at medimaging.net.

Upgrading MRIs can bring improved visibility into the human body and greater accessibility and comfort, according to a story at Radiology Today.

According to CEO Focus, more hospital emergency departments are ordering MRIs for patients these days. The blog reports that “in 2007, 15 percent of imaging in emergency departments was performed with CT or MRI for injury-related conditions, up from just 6 percent in 1998, according to Frederick Kofi Korley, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues.”

Medimaging.net writers report that MRIs benefit from Tim upgrades because they include “improved image quality to boost clinical effectiveness, speeded-up scan times to help with seeing more patients during the working day, and raised staff morale from working with up-to-date technology.” Additionally, MRI upgrades usually disrupt imaging departments much less than installing new ones.

“Our MRI scanner was approaching eight-years-old so we had to make a decision to replace or lengthen its life – we opted for a Tim upgrade to work with what was already in place,” Debbie King, modality lead radiographer in MRI at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, part of the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, told medimaging.net writers. “We have been really pleased with the benefits, gaining faster scan times, and better signal-to-noise ratio for improved image quality. As a result, we have been able to introduce a new cardiac imaging service at the hospital to avoid the need for patients to be referred elsewhere.”

Claire Brettle, superintendent radiographer for computed tomography and MRI at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, agreed. “The upgrade was a much more cost-effective option than buying a new MRI scanner to increase throughput and deliver better image quality,” she said in the story. “The results have been great – we chose to enhance image quality over faster scans and it has made everything we do much better.”

“When MRI systems are nearing their replacement age, technical upgrades offer a quick and alternative route to modernizing capital equipment compared to an entirely new system-install. The cost savings are also a big plus for NHS Trusts that want to extend MRI life spans to gain better image quality and speed,” added Jane Kilkenny, MRI product manager at Siemens Healthcare, in the story.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.