Practice gets new MRI unit

By Don Shilling

The medical practice is the first in the area to install GE’s new environmentally friendly MRI.

BOARDMAN — A crane hoisted a 6-ton magnet into place Monday at a local medical practice, but it also raised the hopes of the practice officials.

The magnet is part of a new magnetic resonance imaging unit, or MRI, that will be operating sometime next month at Youngstown Orthopaedic Associates.

“This is huge for the practice,” said Beth White, director of specialty imaging and marketing services.

The new unit will provide higher-quality scans in less time and will perform certain scans that its current 6-year-old unit cannot do, she said.

The new unit is going into a second building at 1499 Boardman-Canfield Road that the practice has occupied since October.

Youngstown Orthopaedic has been in business for more than 30 years at Tippecanoe and Boardman-Canfield roads but has grown too big for that building. Two of its physicians had been housed at Beeghly Medical Park, but the practice wanted to bring them closer to main office, White said.

The solution was to move into the former State Farm Insurance Co. office that sits across the street from the main office. The second office was remodeled, and four of the practice’s nine physicians are located there.

The practice has 72,000 patient visits a year including those for physical therapy and occupational therapy.

Jim DeCenso, practice administrator, said the practice faces a constant battle to persuade area residents that they don’t have to go to Cleveland or Pittsburgh for medical care. The new MRI unit is part of that effort, he said.

“There is fabulous health-care in this community, and we’re part of that,” he said.

The new MRI also will help the practice recruit and retain its physicians, he said.

The unit was designed with an eye toward protecting the environment.

GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric, developed the Signa HDe line of MRI units to operate with high-energy efficiency. Users could save 41 percent, or $7,000, on their annual energy bills when compared to other models of similar power, said Brett Prince, a GE business manager.

This is the first Signa HDe to be installed in the Mahoning Valley, he said.

In addition, the line also aids the environment by recycling the helium gas that is used to cool the magnet inside the MRI.

Other models require helium to be refilled periodically because the gas is burned off. This unit captures the gas and turns it back into a liquid state so it can be used as a coolant again.

GE officials say this is an advantage because helium is mined for large-scale use and is a finite resource. Also, it has been going up in cost, officials added.

shilling@vindy.com