Designing and Engineering MRI Safety

Tobias Gilk, M. Arch., President/MRI Safety Director, Mednovus, Inc.

For health care facility planners, designers, and engineers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety has historically been a non-issue, relegated to the domain of the MRI equipment vendor and the clinical staff. A series of publications, however, has shone a new light on the role of the facility planners and designers in safety of MRI procedures. For example, in 2007 the American College of Radiology (ACR) published the ACR Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices: 2007, a rewrite of previously released editions of the White Paper on MR Safety. The new guidance document included, for the first time, an entire appendix dedicated to the design principles for safe MRI suite composition specifically intended to consolidate and promote MR safety design tactics for medical planners.

This monograph distills a number of the safety considerations that should be at the forefront when designers are planning for MRI facilities, whether in inpatient or outpatient settings.

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