Future Home of World’s Most Advanced MRI Shines with Copper Lining

March 18, 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. — It’s the glow. The first thing you notice when you walk into Providence Brain Institute’s new operating suite – is that it is fully lined with copper.

The shiny suite at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center will soon be home to the world’s most advanced MRI. Right now, crews are preparing for the arrival of the device’s giant magnet. They’ve used nearly 1.15 million square inches of copper and 15-thousand feet of solder to make the copper shield, which helps keep signals such as radio waves from interfering with the MRI’s magnet.

Providence St. Vincent will be the first medical center on the West Coast – and one of only 16 in the world – to have this advanced neurosurgical imaging system, called “IMRISneuro.” IMRISneuro is a fully integrated operating room with a one-of-a-kind movable MRI. The new technology allows surgeons to safely image patients in the operating room during brain surgery – allowing them to be even more precise.

The new MRI will be ready for use on patients early this fall. Providence St. Vincent will act as an IMRISneuro luminary site on the West Coast. This means medical teams from both Asia and the western United States can visit the hospital and train in the MRI neurological suite.

Photo: Project manager Ken Brooks gives Providence St. Vincent associate administrator Alex Jackson a tour of the copper-lined MRI neurological suite.