On 9th January 2023

First open-source MRI scanner presented: the OSI² ONE

What a milestone! The first open-source MRI scanner, the OSI² ONE, has been built and delivers exciting first in-vivo MR images. OSI² ONE was anounced in 2022 at the ISMRM workshop on low-field MRI and a first prototype travelled to the ISMRM 2022 in London for a live presentation. At the moment three copies have been successfully built in Leiden, Netherlands at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), in Mbarara, Uganda at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and in Berlin, Germany at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). More replicas are to follow.

Some details of the MRI scanner:

  • It consists mostly of open-source hardware and open-source software parts
  • The current material cost for the scanner are around 20.000€
  • The scanner is capable of imaging the head and extremities
  • The permanent magnet has a static magnetic field B0 of ~50 mT and can be constructed by hand using standard production machines such as a CNC and a 3D printer.
Open-source MRI scanner OSI² ONE – Exemplified hardware components of the system: (a) RF coil (b) gradient coil (c) RF and gradient power amplifiers. Constructed scanners in (d) Leiden, Netherlands, (e) Berlin, Germany and (f) Mbarara, Uganda. Imaging performance in (g) an ACR phantom and (h-i) the human head. The in-vivo images were acquired with a 3D TSE 2x2x3mm³ resolution and a total acquisition time of 6min.

Further optimizations of the system are being performed for an easier transition to the clinic. Apart from improvements of the acquired image quality, a very important aspect of the OSI² ONE project is to produce and share documentation that can be used for regulatory approval as a medical device. These documentation blueprints will greatly facilitate the translation from research prototypes to actual products for patients for this and many other open-source and proprietary projects. Open-source can be more than an accelerator for science, it can be the foundation for sustainable global collaboration in the development of medical devices, making MRI more accessible and transparent.

Design files and documentation for this project are being uploaded to this repository: https://gitlab.com/osii-one.