The FONAR 360°™ and The OPEN SKY MRI®

Today, when people are in need of MRI exams, many are diligently seeking alternatives to the tunnel-type scanners. They have heard of, or experienced first-hand, the horrors of the highly claustrophobic and noisy tubes of supercon scanners - "crypts" as some have described them. What people want is a patient-friendly MRI. Now FONAR proudly introduces the FONAR 360°™ - the patient-friendly MRI.

The FONAR 360™ - Nuffield Orthopaedic Center (An Oxford University Teaching Hospital)

The OPEN SKY MRI®

The FONAR 360°™ is a full-size room with a standard eight-foot ceiling. The magnetic poles of the scanner are located in the center of the room; one of them protrudes from the ceiling and the other from the floor. The patient is comfortably positioned in the large space, or gap, between the two poles and is accessible from any angle.

The OPEN SKY MRI® takes advantage of the extreme openness created by the revolutionary design of this scanner which naturally lends itself to any of FONAR's beautiful OPEN SKY® décors. As can be seen in the accompanying photograph, the walls, floor, ceiling, even the magnetic poles, are decorated with one of several stunning landscape murals. There is even one for children featuring favorite cartoon and nursery rhyme characters.

When patients enter the OPEN SKY MRI® scan room, they immediately experience a sense of vastness and tranquility. Patients enjoy the quietness (attributable to FONAR's patented Whisper Gradients™) and beauty of the oceanfront, the mountains, the Great Plains - whatever the chosen landscape. Patients will tell their friends and family they went to the beach instead of to a frightening tunnel. Few in need of an MRI scan will be able to resist its appeal.

The key to FONAR's success as "The Patient Friendly MRI™ Company" is its patented Iron-Frame™ technology, which allows FONAR engineers to fully control, contour and direct the magnet's lines of flux in a variety of structural configurations. It also enables the placement of a very high concentration of flux in the patient gap where wanted and almost none away from the magnet where not wanted. In the case of the FONAR 360°™, FONAR engineers created the ultimate in openness by including the floor, ceiling and sidewalls in the iron frame itself. Patients don't realize it, but the scanner room is literally the inside of the MRI magnet. The height of the ceiling is 8 feet; the width of the room is 14 feet; and its depth is unlimited.

Because the FONAR 360º™ offers unrestricted 360-degree access to the patient and provides ample space for a team of surgeons and all its equipment, the scanner is perfectly suited for future MRI-guided surgical and interventional procedures. See the OR-360º™ (The MRI Operating Room) in the Works in Progress section of this website.