Nunavut gets its first MRI machine
For the first time, Nunavut has an MRI machine.
The team at the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit made history earlier this month when they performed the first head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in Nunavut.
Until now, people who had suffered head trauma were scanned using the CT scanner at the hospital.
"The number medevaced for head scans will decrease, now that babies and pregnant people can be scanned locally due to the low-strength magnets used in the portable MRI," Department of Health spokesperson Pam Coulter said in an email.
The portable machine cost $640,000 and its five-year service contract was an additional $300,000. With shipping, the total cost was just over $1 million, Coulter said.
The machine can be moved throughout the hospital. (Submitted by Nunavut Department of Health)
John Main, Nunavut's health minister, said the machine "opens up new possibilities," given fewer people will need to be sent south.
Nunavut's health department said there are 80 brain CT scans performed each month at the Qikiqtani General Hospital.
The CT scanner at the hospital is being replaced on June 8 and will not be available for six weeks. The MRI machine will allow brain scans to continue in-territory while that happens.
"Without this replacement piece of equipment, we would have been required to send those 80 people south," Main said. "We're going to be actively monitoring how much it's being used."
There were 4,900 scans performed in the last year on the CT scanner in Iqaluit.
The new MRI machine is portable, is managed on an iPad and can be moved throughout the hospital.
"The equipment can go a patient's bedside," Main said.
Coulter said the machine does not detect additional injuries or diseases.
