The Queen Square Imaging Centre has invested in AIR Recon DL, a pioneering technology from GE Healthcare which exploits the power of deep learning-based neural networks to improve patient experience through shortened scan times, while also increasing diagnostic confidence with vastly improved image quality. 

The new technology has been seamlessly integrated into the Queen Square Imaging Centre’s top of the range GE Signa Premier 3T wide-bore MRI scanner, allowing the service to offer an unsurpassed quality of MR imaging and patient experience to all patients.

Until now, specialist teams working in MRI have had little option but to accept a necessary trade-off between anatomical detail, and the desire to have shorter and more patient-friendly scan times.  However, AIR Recon DL technology works in the background to remove the ‘noise’ of an MR image which was only manageable previously through planning longer scan times.  The Queen Square Imaging Centre no longer must choose between image quality and scan time and can bring the full benefit of deep learning to its patients through reduced examination durations (up to 50% in some cases), and with ultra-high-resolution scans where additional detail is needed (for example, during MR Neurography or imaging of the skull base).

QSIC’s Operations Manager, Peter Sutton, said that ‘previous incarnations have been met with skepticism, as there has always been concern that image detail can be obscured and even ‘thrown away’ during post processing.  However, we are excited to now have AIR Recon DL which makes full use of the raw data we acquire for maximum image quality, giving our expert radiologists the confidence, they need that what they are seeing is a true and accurate depiction of what is happening in the patient.’  He went on to say that ‘this investment has not only enabled us to continue pushing our imaging protocols to achieve thinner slices and greater detail than ever before, but it has also allowed us to introduce fast imaging protocols which are equally high-quality as our previous 3T scans but can be offered at a much-reduced cost to the patient owing to the time saving. We are now offering incredibly high-quality 3T imaging of the knee and lumbar spine at low prices which match those of other less specialized units.

Through a novel subscription with GE Healthcare, the Queen Square Imaging Centre also looks forward to benefitting immediately from future releases of the technology, ensuring the service is future-proofed and offering the very latest technology available to it valued patients.