A pioneering brain scanner, one of the first to be owned by an NHS trust in England, is being trialled in Kent to improve dementia diagnosis and mental health research.
The low-field MRI scanner is smaller, cheaper, and more portable than traditional machines, and could be used in community clinics for faster, more accessible assessments.
Led by the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), with academic partners, the research aims to combine the scanners with AI to match the image quality of standard MRI scans.
Prof Sukhi Shergill, from KMPT, believes the scanner could be “revolutionary” and lead to quicker dementia diagnosis.