Super scans

is working with a superconductor specialist to develop a new generation of MRI scanners that will give doctors far more information about their patients.

The device maker’s partner, Coated Conductors Consultancy, is building a superconductor that is claimed to have an engineering current density up to 50 times greater than the next-best technology: coated-conductor tapes.

The superior energy density of the proposed superconductors will enable medical staff to scan patients lying on a bed rather than in cramped chambers.

A series of superconductors each the length of a can of baked beans, placed under the bed, will provide doctors with better images than they get from existing MRI scanners, said Dr Ian McDougall, Oxford Instrument’s intellectual property manager.

‘What we are interested in is the profile of the field,’ he said. MRI scanners produce static magnetic fields. Because scanners using the new superconductors could control the magnetic field of each ‘bean can’ individually, doctors would be able to manipulate the overall field to obtain a much better image.