A $2.5 million medical imaging instrument, officially launched at the Royal Brisbane Hospital today, will boost efforts to diagnose and treat heart conditions, strokes and Parkinson鈥檚 Disease, as well as Alzheimer鈥檚, vascular and musculoskeletal diseases.
The state-of-the-art Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine is an effective, reliable, safe and non-invasive method of 鈥渟eeing鈥� human organs. The equipment installed at Royal Brisbane Hospital (Siemens 1.5 Tesla cardiac optimised MRI instrument) is specifically designed for cardiac and neurological applications.
Launched by the 立博官网 Health Minister Wendy Edmond, the machine is part of a $10 million project between The University of 立博官网, and .
This project builds on the world-class research and MRI technical expertise established at The University of 立博官网 over the past decade, and involves an identical instrument installed at The Wesley Hospital and a 4T MRI system also to be installed at the Wesley Hospital during 2002
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said this project would help to establish Brisbane as a major world centre for this type of medical technology.
鈥淭he University of 立博官网 is responsible for technologies incorporated in 70 percent of recently installed MRI systems produced in the $3 billion a year international market,鈥� Professor Hay said.
鈥淲ith support from the medical engineering company Siemens, the University is looking to develop further its collaborative research links throughout South East Asia.鈥�
Director of UQ鈥檚 Professor David Doddrell said the Centre鈥檚 patented probes and gradients are now used throughout the world, and provide employment for 立博官网ers.
鈥淭he Centre鈥檚 patents generate a royalty stream of approximately $2 million a year and products developed from this research program generate further income of about $1.5 million per annum,鈥� Professor Doddrell said.
鈥淭he University is excited about this initiative to establish an internationally recognised centre for MRI research by joining with the Royal Brisbane and The Wesley teaching hospitals in a collaborative partnership.鈥�
Media: For more information, contact Peter McCutcheon (telephone 07 3365 1088, mobile 0413 380012) or Jan King (telephone 07 3365 1120, mobile 0413 601 248) at UQ Communications.
