During ISMRM 2020, Philips and University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht, a leading academic hospital in the Netherlands, today kicked off a research partnership to advance precision diagnosis through breakthrough quantitative MRI technology MR-STAT. The exclusive, multi-year research partnership will establish a global clinical research network with the aim of fully commercializing the technology, which has initially been developed at UMC Utrecht.
MR-STAT is a paradigm shift in MR, relying on a new smart acquisition scheme and machine-assisted reconstruction. MR-STAT delivers multiple quantitative MR parameters in a single fast scan, and represents a significant advance in MR tissue classification, fueling big data algorithms and AI-enabled integrated diagnostic solutions.
In today’s MR systems, quantitative parameters are only produced after the raw data have already been transposed into images. With MR-STAT, the quantitative parameters are reconstructed directly from the raw data. This approach, fueled by recent advances in computing and algorithm development, effectively maximizes the use of every data point collected and removes the need for prior knowledge such as signal dictionaries, opening a wealth of opportunities in standardizing quantitative MRI, at very short scan times that are very attractive for clinical practice.
“Based on the feedback from clinical research studies, we strongly believe that this technology can provide tremendous value in the clinic,” said Professor Nico van den Berg, chair of the Computational Imaging group at UMC Utrecht and one of the technique’s inventors. “We are very pleased with this partnership and look forward to accelerating this technology with more clinical partners in the near future.”
“At Philips we’re focused on supporting healthcare providers to realize first-time-right diagnosis through clinically relevant and intelligent diagnostics,” said Joland Rutgers, Research and Development Leader for MR at Philips. “With this fast quantitative and single acquisition technology, enhanced with AI, MR-STAT will play a pivotal role in delivering the best diagnostic outcome at an affordable cost, benefitting both healthcare providers and their patients.”