UK’s first MRI scanner wrap at Addenbrooke’s will ease patients’ anxiety - and could help save lives

The first wrap of an MRI scanner in the UK is helping to ease the anxiety of patients at Addenbrooke’s - and the hospital says it could even help to save their lives.

The vinyl wrap on the scanner, with forest-based design, has been teamed with a co-ordinated look for the walls of the scanner room, featuring sunlight bursting through the trees in a move intended to help bring the outside in.

Nature scenes also adorn the walls and corridors of the waiting area as well as the changing rooms, helping to soothe patients arriving for scans.

The new look has been funded by donations to Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), the official charity for Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie, which has also paid for two £30,000 audio visual systems for two of the department’s three scanners. It means stressed patients arriving for a scan can now listen to music and watch videos while completing their scan.

The wrap has been installed on a GE 3.0 tesla MRI scanner, which is equipped with cutting-edge AI technology and used for patients across the UK. It serves as a showcase scanner for GE for other hospitals to come and visit.

Since its installation at the end of July, the department has not seen any patients unable to go through with their scan, which saves money and, according to Bruno Carmo, Addenbrooke’s MRI service manager, could ultimately help save patients’ lives.

“It has made a massive difference not just for the staff but for the patients too. Everybody who comes in to visit the department notices the environment immediately. It’s different, it’s beautiful and it’s friendly. It just fills my soul,” said Bruno.

“One of the big reasons for patients being unable to complete a scan is claustrophobia and anxiety and just the fact that we can see the impact of this nice calm environment already reduces the possibility of a patient having to be recalled for a second time.

“Ensuring a patient completes their scan first time around can literally save hundreds of pounds, thousands in some cases. For instance, if you have a paediatric patient, someone who is between 2 and 12 years old, if they cannot go ahead with the scan they join a long waiting list to have the scan under general anaesthetic where it can cost thousands because you need to book the bed space as well as the general anaesthetic and theatre teams.”

The scanner, the department’s second of its kind, also supports the department’s world-leading research and improves diagnostic accuracy for conditions like cancer and musculoskeletal disorders.

While Bruno said it was too early to gauge the impact of the work in the department, an earlier, three-month audit of patients found that 90 per cent of patients reported that being able to listen to music and watch videos helped them to complete their scan.

Paul White, director of communications and impact at ACT, said: “Our amazing supporters at ACT have already helped transform numerous staff and patient waiting areas around Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie and continue to do so - areas like the oncology department as well as the X-ray waiting room, where a lot of stressed patients and family members have to sit and wait.

“It is really heartening to hear the huge impact this work is having on both patients and staff alike – not just in providing them with a nicer environment but also how these relatively small changes can go as far as saving patients’ lives as well as all the costs associated with being able to successfully scan a patient first time around.”

Ilse Patterson, lead R&D MRI radiographer at Addenbrooke’s, said being able to see scan results on a first visit enables diagnosis and treatment or surgery to happen sooner and has transformed her own day-to-day work.

“I have worked in a few hospitals and I think there is nothing worse than walking into a hospital that looks like a hospital and smells like a hospital, it’s just not pleasant,” said Ilse.

“I was on holiday when the waiting area was transformed and when I returned to work, I was amazed. It definitely changes the mood for the patients.

“With the old scanner, it was narrow, it was a bit dark in that room, it was a narrow bore (tunnel), it was quite old and it wasn’t very pleasant.I really didn’t enjoy putting patients in there. But now it’s new, it’s light, it’s bigger, it’s got lovely pictures. Just to be able to make it that little bit easier for the patients, in any way we can, is a really positive thing for us.”

Cath Mills, president of the British Association of MR Radiographers (BAMRR), said: “It’s great to see the amazing work at Addenbrooke’s that is helping to make their patients’ experience as positive as possible.

“The unique ‘one of a kind’ MRI scanner wrap is the first in the UK that we have seen at the British Association of MR Radiographers and we think it’s great.

“The MR environment can be very daunting to patients, especially paediatrics and those who suffer with severe claustrophobia so it is so important that we do everything we can to help our patients to feel relaxed.

“MR departments provide as much information as possible prior to appointments to help their patients to prepare, and the clinical staff on scan day offer support to the patient to help them to feel relaxed during their scan. In the past few years manufacturers have made changes to scanner design which has resulted in modern scanners looking a lot less scary than they used to. It is great to see the work at Addenbrooke’s that has addressed another dimension in scanner design by the addition of the wrap.”

Colin driven to work in hospitals after losing his son

The installation of the MRI wrap was undertaken by Surrey-based Grosvenor Interiors, the managing director of which, Colin Horn, was driven to work in healthcare and with charities after losing his son Adam to leukaemia.

He was diagnosed with the disease in 2000 at the age of 15.

“He had it for seven years and was in and out of hospital before we lost him,” said Colin. “He had to undergo extensive treatment along the way, including a bone marrow transplant, huge rounds of chemo, and lots of MRIs, CT scans and live X-rays, so I’ve got a lot of experience of what it was like to be treated in hospital and it was obvious to me that the spaces he was in made a huge difference to how he felt.

“Some spaces Adam went into, he would become more withdrawn or belligerent and in other spaces he was a lot happier going through them if they were decorated in a more age-appropriate way.”

It prompted him to switch Grosvenor Interiors’ focus from working on homes and it has been working with ACT for three years now on transforming hospital spaces.

“It suddenly didn’t matter how much money we had any more. It was much more rewarding doing work in hospitals where you realise the work you are doing really does make a genuine difference to people whereas when you do a half a million pound kitchen for people, they cook a nice meal in it and that’s it. Now though, I could spend almost any amount, a couple of thousand pounds, and it can make a huge difference,” said Colin.

“The NHS is not obliged to provide beautiful looking spaces but it is well known that the environment is very important to how people feel. Our aim is to calm spaces down and therefore calm the people within them down and as a consequence it reduces anxiety levels which prevents an anxiety response in the body and makes the whole process easier for patients being treated as well as for the staff looking after them.”

Colin’s company reads research papers looking at the impact of environments on healthcare and has its own design department providing the images for the vinyl wraps.

After seeing the wrapped scanner, Colin said: “The scanner was certainly much more impressive than I thought it would be and when I hear the reactions people have, that’s the thing that makes it all worthwhile.

“We are very grateful to Addenbrooke’s and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust for the opportunity to be involved in the wrapping of the scanner. It is something I have personally wanted to do from the get go after transitioning the business into healthcare and we would very much like to see as many diagnostic machines and scan spaces in hospitals up and down the country with enhanced environments.

“There is nothing good that comes out of your child dying but realistically I wouldn’t be doing this if that hadn’t have happened. At times it was very hard to find a positive after Adam died but this is my positive. We have actively made a lot of difference to people’s lives.”

‘Design helps improve mindfulness’

Victoria Bloomfield, the expenditure and gifts projects manager at ACT, has a background in interior design and works part-time as a psychotherapist.

She has worked with Grosvenor Interiors for three years now through ACT, helping transform hospital space at Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie and is aware of the impact of nature-themed wraps around the hospital.

“Being in nature releases certain natural hormones in our bodies, such as serotonin, so if patients are sitting in an environment that looks more natural it can only help with mindfulness because it triggers memories of the real thing,” said Vic.

“Staff are constantly coming back to us to say that they love their new space and that they love coming to work now. Everyone we speak to talks about how it has transformed their working lives.”