State’s most advanced clinical imaging centre, worth $13m, opens at SAHMRI
THE growing South Australian Health and Biomedical Precinct takes another step forward today with the opening of the most advanced clinical imaging centre in the state.
THE growing South Australian Health and Biomedical Precinct takes another step forward today with the opening of the most advanced clinical imaging centre in the state.
The $13 million Clinical and Research Imaging Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute has been established in partnership with Dr Jones and Partners Medical Imaging.
Space on the ground level of the SAHMRI building on North Terrace has become a Dr Jones & Partners clinic, with dedicated time allocated to SAHMRI researchers for clinical research without compromising the scheduling of patient treatments.
State-of-the-art imaging equipment in the centre includes CT, MRI and PET/CT platforms.
Officials say the arrangement is moving SAHMRI in a new direction of commercialisation with industry partners to create a facility to benefit researchers with the aim of improving the treatment and diagnosis of patients.
SAHMRI executive director Professor Steve Wesselingh said the benefits of having dedicated imaging are “countless”.
“Having access to imaging facilities on a regular basis allows for less invasive treatment of patients and provides an opportunity for broader clinical trials that utilise imaging,” Professor Wesselingh said.
Dr Jones & Partners managing director Dr Will Thompson said the practice is excited to be a key part of the state’s growing research imaging capability and the benefits that will flow to patients.
“Patients will benefit from access to convenient state of the art imaging within the new health and biomedical precinct and complement our other CBD clinics at Calvary Wakefield and St Andrew’s Hospital, as well as across metropolitan and country South Australia,” he said.
The CRIC will boost research already underway at SAHMRI, particularly in the Heart Health and Mind and Brain themes.
This includes a project using CT scanning of heart arteries to see which individuals without apparent heart disease are most likely to benefit from cholesterol lowering using treatment with statins.
Another project to benefit will be development of a neurological inflammation marker to image spinal cord injury, allowing a more definitive prognosis.
Having the CRIC located on the same site as SAHMRI’s cyclotron will enable new shorter half-life compounds to be used in research. There are now several compounds being developed using the cyclotron for conditions such as dementia, cancer and cardiovascular disease which need to be tracked by advanced imaging machines.