Dr. Shannon Kolind is featured in the Faculty of Medicine’s Pathways Magazine for bringing cutting edge technology to reality for those with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with portable MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines.
The importance of MRI access is critical for caring with patients with MS, used for diagnosis, monitoring, and guidance of treatment. The diagnosis of MS used to be a long process due to the spectrum of associated symptoms, but with the use of MRIs, this is no longer the case.
Despite the importance of this neuroimaging, typical MRI machines themselves are a cumbersome and limited resource, giving priority to patients with more urgent needs and most often found in urban areas. The machines are not only expensive, they are huge, heavy, and immobile, with the associated need for highly specialized personnel to operate them.
However, new portable MRIs on wheels could remove many of these barriers, improving patients’ access such scans when and where is necessary. As one of the first Canadian researchers to test the low-field portable MRI, Dr. Kolind will help determine how the scans compared to typical MRIs compare, and whether they would be suitable for use in both clinical use and clinical trials. Because the portable version uses a very low magnetic field (described as “barely stronger than a fridge magnet”), it’s safe to bring it bedside, and it doesn’t need specialists to operate. In fact, the portable MRI is compatible with smartphones.
Dr. Kolind is the recipient of significant funding working with a variety of partner sites across Sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. The aim is to research paediatric malnutrition on neurodevelopment, using imaging protocols Dr. Kolind and her team are developing. The Pathways feature also sheds light on the importance of this work and her other projects to Dr. Kolind’s personal life.
The ATM commends Dr. Kolind for her outstanding contributions to translational medicine at UBC and beyond.