Congratulations to the team on this fantastic work! We’re proud to have supported this project with EPSRC through the Prosperity Partnership initiative - a great example of the impact of industry-academia collaborations.
This potentially life-saving breakthrough is why industry-academia collaborations are so valuable. An EPSRC prosperity partnership between researchers from The University of Sheffield and GE HealthCare, has combined MRI lung-scanning technology with AI which could make MRI scans more cost effective and available on the NHS. The technology was officially unveiled on today at a ceremony at the University of Sheffield MRI unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. University of Shefield researchers have pioneered use of imaging inhaled Xenon gas in the lung space to generate high-quality gas MR images. The Xeon gas imaging technique can be effectively used on more portable, cost-effective low-field MRI scanners. GE HealthCare has trained AI software on images generated from high-field scanners to reconstruct images from a low-field scanner and achieve the quality of a high-field scan. The combination of the technologies is a world first and would allow more people to be seen more quickly, cutting waiting lists and saving lives. Our Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said: "Our Prosperity Partnerships are harnessing collaborative research by connecting the UK's leading research communities with businesses. They enable fundamental research, that delivers innovation for individual businesses and industrial sectors, whilst driving wider economic benefits through improved productivity. “This MRI scanner technology is a great example of the impact of the Prosperity Partnerships initiative and it’s fantastic to see that it has the potential return on investment by providing earlier diagnoses, save the NHS money and enable access to healthcare services in the community.” The research team will now be testing the technology on healthy volunteers over the coming months. If all goes well, the scanner will be opened to volunteer patients and then validated for future clinical use in partnership with the NHS. Congratulations to the team on this fantastic work - we’re excited to see its future impacts 👏 Head to the UKRI website for the full story.