Naval Medical Logistics Command (NMLC) has signed a contract with Philips Healthcare for two mobile MRI systems to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury of wounded warriors in Afghanistan.
The procurement of the MRI systems has been a joint initiative between NMLC’s technical and operational partners including: Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, US Army Medical Material Agency, Chief of Mobility Command, the Veterans Administration, and the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.
The mobile MRI units in question are unlike any that are commercially available. They will be self-contained, requiring that they be designed from the ground up to account for the many unique and challenging working environments that will be encountered in combat theater such as vast temperature differences, fine blowing, sand and power issues. And they must also meet size and weight requirements to be capable of being airlifted into theater.
