Patients are the first in Canada to be scanned using state-of-the-art portable MRI

Kingston, ON – Life in Ontario’s far north brings with it unique challenges. Depending on which community you call home, something as simple as running to the grocery store to pick up an ingredient when you’ve run out may not be easy. So, what happens then when you have a more urgent need; for example, if you’ve suffered a stroke and are hours away by plane from the nearest hospital with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine?

A new study, being led by Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) and Queen’s University is looking to find answers to that question through the use of a portable MRI, a brand new technology now available in Canada. Developed by Hyperfine, the unit was recently delivered to Weeneebayko General Hospital in Moose Factory and is the first unit of its kind in Canada to be used for patient care.

“I thought a portable MRI would be a game-changing technology to bring to Canada, especially in remote areas where MRI availability is limited or non-existent,” says radiologist Dr. Omar Islam, who is leading the project. “The analogy would be the introduction of cell phone service to isolated areas where previously even a landline did not exist.”

KHSC and Queen’s Health Sciences, in partnership with the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA), have provided specialized health care services to individuals who live in these remote communities along the James Bay coast for decades. This includes the community of Moose Factory, as well as Indigenous communities such as Kashechewan and Attawapiskat. Each week medical teams fly north from Kingston to provide care to these patients. When patients need further specialized care they are then flown south to hospitals in Timmins or Kingston.

“In the case of a stroke for example, every minute is crucial and every moment spent trying to get a patient to a hospital increases the likelihood that the patient could be left with permanent paralysis, loss of speech or brain damage,” says Dr. Islam. “Through this year-long study we hope to learn if making this technology available in the north, by bringing the imaging to the patient, rather than by bringing the patient to the imaging, could improve patient outcomes and quality of life.”