Patients in Vernon and throughout the North Okanagan will no longer have to travel to Kelowna or Kamloops for an MRI scan.
“It’s a cutting edge MRI and it can do a lot of exams in significantly less time than traditional scanners, and it’s also larger than some of the other magnets in the area,” says Dr. Adam Weathermon, head of radiology at the Vernon hospital.
According to Weathermon, the machine is a Siemens 1.5T Sola MRI, and it’s just the fourth one to be installed in Canada. Between the machine itself and the MRI suite it lives in, the cost of the project was around $7 million.
It’s a significant piece of equipment to add to a radiologist’s toolkit to say the least, and Weathermon is excited to be able to provide patients with the treatment they need without having to travel far. “It really gives the doctors here the tools that they need when they have patients who need evaluations of their joints, their brain, their spine, their cancer,” he said. “So it’s very important for us.”
Link to the full Vernon Morning Star story by Brendan Shykora
Photo: Dr. Mike Concannon, ER Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Dr. Ed Hardy, Oncologist, Eric Foster, MLA, Dr. Adam Weathermon, Head of Radiology and Dr. Curtis Mohamed, Medical Representative for VJH Foundation. (Photo credit: Min Sidhu)