Experts publish new guidance on the use of portable MRI exams
A team of multidisciplinary experts has drafted a set of new recommendations intended to guide researchers on the safe and effective use of portable MR imaging.
The Portable MRI Research ELSI Checklist was published Friday in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Funded by a National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative grant, the first of its kind checklist was created to walk researchers through every operational step of using portable MRI, from creating protocols to prepping patients, ensuring safety, handling incidental findings, data privacy and more.
The use of portable MRI scanners has grown significantly in recent years, most notably among the research community. With the trend expected to continue, a group of experts led by the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences thought it necessary to put together a checklist containing evidence-based guidance on medical, ethical and legal challenges researchers might face during their studies.
“The advent of new, highly portable MRI technologies ushers in a new era of MRI research that can now be conducted outside of medical centers and in community settings,” lead author Francis Shen, University of Minnesota law professor, and colleagues noted. “Such expanded access to MRI may help facilitate more diverse and representative MRI research participation and empower participant communities as co-creators of MRI research designs."
The team highlighted three immediate portable MR imaging concerns that aren’t as common to traditional hospital-based operations: 1) a lack of established protocols 2) greater variation in scanning environments and 3) increased physical distance between site of data acquisition and medical expertise.
To address these concerns, the team crafted their advice to fall under one of the four main stages in the life cycle of portable imaging in community settings; these include the creation of research protocols, preparing patients for their exam, conducting the scan itself and tending to patients’ external needs (ensuring data privacy, access to results, informing participants of incidental findings, etc.) after exam completion.
“Research in the community brings with it additional obligations not typically required of standard MRI research protocols, for example the duty of researchers to partner with the local community in the research enterprise,” lead author Francis Shen, University of Minnesota law professor, and colleagues explained. “We offer general guidance, but recognize that a core tenet of community-engaged research is that ‘the experience of community differs from one setting to another.’ This general guidance will need to be adapted in partnership with the relevant community to fit the particular research context.”
The detailed checklist is available here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.