Swansea Bay University Health Board NHS Wales installs the GE Signa Artist 1.5T with AIR technology

The team at the MRI department at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, are delighted to have recently installed the GE HealthCare Signa Artist 1.5T system into their department.

The Signa Artist AIR, is designed with AI in its genes to maximize productivity and workflow while delivering extraordinary clinical potential and exceptional patient comfort. Through enhanced AIR technology, we’ve advanced the capabilities of wide-bore MR by delivering 1.5T image quality with both high productivity and an extraordinary patient experience.

Delivered not only with one of the latest AIR Technology including AIR Coils and deep learning reconstruction but also has the new workflow AIR Touch, GE’s one-touch landmarking tool, allowing the team at Morriston to have more time to focus on the patient, rather than the scanner.

Barry Spedding, MR superintendent said: “This new MRI scanner will support the ongoing high standards that the team provide to the patients visiting the MR department. Overall, we are very proud to be able to offer one of the latest in AIR technology to the patients that come to Morriston MRI Department. Having worked with GE equipment for some time, it is fantastic to have the next generation of GE MRI installed at Morriston. The image quality is excellent, and the scanner will enable us to continue to provide an excellent diagnostic service, ensuring one of the best possible outcome for our patients.”

The award-winning AIR coils are the next generation coil that allows flexibility in any direction to conform to the patient’s anatomy. The coils have been designed to adapt and scan various patient shapes, sizes and anatomies, with an ultra-lightweight distribution of less than 0.5 grams/cm2. Based on innovative technologies, the AIR coils provide superb SNR and acceleration performance, while improving the overall patient and user experience.

Barry said: “Having these blanket-like coils, rather than the traditional coils, enable us to position patients in the most comfortable position. Patients scanned at Morriston, tend to be in pain and require a comfortable position to be able to lie still and get through the examination as comfortable as possible. These coils allow us to scan the patients in a more comfortable position, which reduces anxiety and overall providing a better patient experience.”

The scanner also has one of the latest AI based Reconstruction, AIR Recon DL. Reconstruction is at the heart of every scan, and reducing noise during reconstruction is critical to achieving clear images.

AIR Recon DL, a GE HealthCare deep-learning application for MR image reconstruction. Simply better image quality which challenges the inherent trade-off between SNR, scan time and image resolution. AIR Recon DL is not a filter or a post-processing technique. It improves image quality at the foundational level, and with trained neural networks embedded directly in the reconstruction pipeline, noise and ringing artefacts are removed in the raw data to deliver final reconstructed images with higher SNR and sharpness. Achieve pin-sharp image quality, undeniable speed, and consistency with AIR Recon DL.

Barry said: “The team are really enjoying working with the new AIR Recon DL.  It’s simple to use and produces fantastic images by reducing background noise. This means faster scan times, increased patient throughput and superior image quality either by reducing the number of sequences minimising patient movement, or improved signal for similar scan times.”

Nicola Jones GE HealthCare account manager for Wales said: “We are really pleased to bring this fantastic technology to Morriston. It’s great to continue the collaboration between us and the team.” 

GE HealthCare do not have a contractual relationship from those who have given the quotes beyond supplier and user.

Picture: Michele Gaspar, GE HealthCare MR sales specialist, Melissa Hopkin, David Denicola, Daniel Jones, GE HealthCare account manager Nicola Jones, Barry Spedding MR superintendent, Jacqui Austin, Andrew Jones and Sharine Khanum.

This news story has been sponsored by the companies concerned and does not represent the views or opinions of RAD Magazine.