For the first time in the UK, an MRI scanner has been wrapped in vinyl with nature-inspired artwork to help calm patients.
The forest artwork on the new state-of-the-art MRI scanner and walls will help save patients lives, as well as thousands of pounds.
Bruno Carmo, MRI Service Manager at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said one of the big reasons for patients being unable to complete a scan is claustrophobia and anxiety.
Ensuring a patient completes their scan first time around can literally save hundreds of pounds, thousands in some cases. Everybody who comes into visit the department notices the environment immediately. It’s different, it’s beautiful and it’s friendly. It just fills my soul.
Bruno Carmo, MRI Service Manager
The GE scanner, which is equipped with cutting-edge AI technology, supports Addenbrooke's world-leading research. It is the MRIS department's second scanner of its type, which improves diagnostic accuracy for conditions like cancer and musculoskeletal disorders.
Since the scanner went live at the end of July, the department has not seen any patients unable to go through with their scan.
The artwork was funded by Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT), the official charity for Addenbrooke's and the Rosie. As well as the vinyl wraps, ACT supporters have also funded two £30,000 audio visual systems with two of the department's three scanners, meaning that anxious patients waiting for a scan can now listen to music and watch videos while completing their scan.
Ilse Patterson, Lead R&D MRI Radiographer, said being able to see scan results on a first visit effectively allows diagnosis and treatment or surgery to happen sooner, therefore helping to save patients’ lives in some cases.
Paul White, Director of Communications and Impact at ACT, said: “Our amazing supporters at ACT have already helped transform numerous staff and patient waiting areas around Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie and continue to do so. Areas like the Oncology Department as well as the X-Ray waiting room where a lot of stressed patients and family members have to sit and wait. It is really heartening to hear the huge impact this work is having on both patients and staff alike – not just in providing them with a nicer environment to be in but also how these relatively small changes can go as far as saving patients’ lives as well as all the costs associated with first time around treatments.”
Colin Horn, manging director of Grosvenor Interiors, who installed the artwork, started working in healthcare after losing his son Adam to leukaemia. He added: "He had it for seven years and was in out of hospital before we lost him. It was obvious to me that the spaces he was in, made a huge difference to how he felt. Some spaces Adam went into, he would be more withdrawn or belligerent and in other spaces he was a lot happier. going through them if they were decorated in a more age-appropriate way."