Scan2Go: Autonomous MRI for large scale diagnostics of brain integrity

This perception study will build and evaluate a low-cost automatic self-scan MRI with article intelligence that translates images to diagnose in the elderly care facility Quarijn and neighbouring general practitioner Heuvelrug Medical Center. With a public private partnership, under co-creation with patients, guided by Curis Design and Amsterdam UMC, Innowill construct the SMART chair. Under guidance of UMC Utrecht, TeslaDC will build the invisible MRI receivers and Futura and Prodrive the silent mode. Quantib will implement the AI in collaboration with Erasmus MC.

Most people experiencing cognitive symptoms want a timely diagnosis and prognosis and to prevent/delay progression to dementia. Emerging treatments are most effective at early disease stages. MRI is a powerful tool for diagnosis, prognostication, and assessment of novel treatment effects. It is, however, relatively expensive as it requires experts to operate the scanner and interpret images. From patients’ perspective, MRI can be experienced as unpleasant and results can be difficult to comprehend.

Our objective is to make MRI comfortable and autonomous, creating an automatic, understandable diagnostic report, thus more accessible for timely dementia evaluation at large, outside of hospitals. 

In the first two years, the MRI scanner will be made silent including a SMART chair that safely guides the patient into the MRI while AI translates the images into understandable diagnoses. In the final two years, the perception of autonomous MRI will be investigated in the elderly care facility and neighbouring GP.