15th November saw the official opening of the Race Cottam designed Walton Centre In-theatre Intra-operative MRI scanner. Located in Liverpool, the facility is the first hospital in the North West to offer this facility for adult patients.
The scanner and specialist equipment were funded by a £2million donation from the Marina Dalglish Appeal, set up by the wife of former Liverpool FC manager and player Kenny Daliglish.
The facility is part of a wider project at the specialist neurosciences hospital, where Race Cottam designed an extension to accommodate two new theatres around the iMRI scanner. The system, operational since May, allows surgeons to visualise more easily the extent and position of a tumour to allow efficient removal. The proximity of the iMRI to the theatres means that patients can be scanned immediately following an operation, avoiding the need for a second anaesthetic and surgical procedure, if it is found that further surgery is required.