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Carle Clinic Installs
New State-of-the-Art MRI Scanner
URBANA- Radiologists and staff at Carle
Clinic will receive a new top of the line 3 Tesla Siemens Magnetic
Resonance Imaging scanner. This is the department’s third high
field MRI, which weighs 28,000 pounds and has twice the power of
any clinical equipment previously available in Champaign-Urbana. It
will allow radiologists to further enhance their ability to diagnose
patients.
“The 3T will help physicians and staff in their
clinical work, and will also allow us to expand research
collaboration with the Beckman Imaging Center at the University of
Illinois Beckman Institute,” explained Carle Clinic Radiologist Dr.
Thomas Kim.
To accommodate the major construction project,
Carle Security will close the main entrance to Carle Clinic and
Carle Hospital overnight Tuesday, March 21, 2006 from 5:00 p.m. to
2:00 a.m. Workers will divert patients through the south door of the
main entrance. Patients will be able to use the parking garage as
usual. However, Orchard St. on the Carle campus will be blocked to
traffic, while workers deliver the 3T scanner.
The project is unique in that the magnet is
such a large piece of equipment it must be moved by crane, through a
special entrance in the building. Workers have removed the ceiling
in the path where the equipment will be moved. They have built
reinforced walls in the room where the scanner will be housed to
contain magnetic field and radio frequency waves using 8.2 tons of
magnetic silicone steel. After moving the MRI, the crews will
rebuild the facility in time to reopen the radiology department
Wednesday morning, March 22.
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