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24 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J a n u a r y 2 0 2 0 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m The Hyperfine MRI prototype first test was this 3-D color image of a green bell pepper, which has roughly the same molecular makeup as the human brain. 'We hadn't done any testing yet so we couldn't put a person in it,' Rothberg explained. Hyperfine MRI Continued from Page 23 Saving stroke victims Yomna Nassef, MD, a spokes- woman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, saw a demo of the prototype at the trade show and was intrigued. "e fact that a machine could come to the bedside of a patient is something that's quite exciting for most emergency medical physi- cians," says Nassef, who practices emergency medicine at St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y. "We would have to be able to test it more in a clinical setting to know what the downsides are." She sees the greatest promise in changing how stroke patients are diagnosed in the emergency room. Clot-busting drugs and recent advances in surgical techniques have improved outcomes for stroke patients, she says, but there's a small time window for successful intervention. "Being able to get that MRI a little bit faster in those cases could potentially save a lot of lives and a lot of disability," says Nassef. Currently patients who come to the ER with symptoms are admin- istered a CT scan, but those are not 100-percent effective in detecting strokes, so patients oen must be admitted to the hospital for an MRI. Obtaining those scans right in the ER could not only save time, but spare patients the cost of a hospital stay, she says. Possible drawbacks? Image quality and maintenance. "A lot of our emergency departments are very resource-limited," she explains. "So we'd have to see exactly what it would entail [to incorporate it into the emergency room]." Limitless applications As for image quality, Hyperfine is upfront about what its MRI scanner can't do — at least not yet. "If you have a very tiny stroke, less than 5 mm, you wouldn't necessarily be able to see that on this device at this time — and I would underscore at this time — because the improve- ment in image quality over time has been miraculous," explains Martin, the CSO. "But if you have a stroke or a tu- mor that's a centimeter [the size of a pea] or bigger, you're going to see that," he adds. "e beauty of this system is it's really good at ruling something in." If doctors do detect an abnormality and need more definition, Martin says, they could always follow up with a traditional MRI. "So it's a good way to stratify how urgently I need to prioritize the patient," he says. Yale School of Medicine neurology and neurosurgery professor Kevin N. Sheth, MD, is studying the device's potential for imaging patients too unstable to leave the ICU. Over the last 18 months, he has scanned more than 100 patients with the Hyperfine device in the neuro intensive-care unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. He says it can be especially useful for monitoring a brain condition, such as a hemorrhage, over hours or days. "We're not going to go down to the MRI suite every hour; that's not safe or practical," he says. "When you have a portable system, all of a sudden that becomes a very real option. You just wheel it around." Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are testing the machine on patients with hydro- cephalus, a brain disease caused by abnormal fluid buildup. e dis- ease is treated by inserting a shunt into the brain to drain the fluid, which sometimes must be adjusted or replaced. UPenn is studying whether Hyperfine's MRI can be used to safely and cheaply monitor those patients in a doctor's office. Because there is no radiation involved, Rothberg says the machine also holds promise for monitoring brain development in newborns. Meanwhile, he has a commitment from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to buy the first 20 Hyperfine MRI machines, once it receives regulatory clearance, to bring MRI to children in places that lack access. "Our business plan is pretty simple," says Rothberg. "We make our money [by selling it] to the 3 billion people who can afford it, and then work with charities to get it to the 4 billion people who can't." n "We're not going to go down to the MRI suite every hour; that's not safe or practical. When you have a portable system, all of a sudden that becomes a very real option. You just wheel it around." Yale professor and MD Kevin Sheth is studying the Hyperfine device's potential for imaging patients too unstable to be moved out of the ICU.

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