Enabling awake scanning for claustrophobic MRI patients with Ambient Experience

Researchers at Singapore General Hospital have conducted an innovative study to address the challenges posed by claustrophobia during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures. Claustrophobia is a common reason for MRI discontinuation, leading to increased reliance on sedation, which incurs substantial costs for both hospitals and patients. This service evaluation explored the potential of an ambient audiovisual experience (AE) system to minimize sedation needs for claustrophobic patients.

The study was conducted in two phases over two years. First, the team compared MRI discontinuation rates due to claustrophobia across five outpatient scanners, including one equipped with the AE system and four without. The results clearly demonstrated that the AE scanner had significantly lower discontinuation rates compared to the non-AE scanners.

In the second phase, researchers observed 30 claustrophobic patients who previously required sedation to complete their scans in non-AE scanners. These patients were subsequently scanned using the AE system. Notably, 28 out of the 30 patients were able to complete their MRI without sedation.

The conclusion from Singapore General Hospital’s study is clear: implementing an ambient audiovisual experience system showed effective in reducing the need for sedation among claustrophobic MRI patients in the hospital. This introduced significant time and cost saving for the hospital, while improving the patient experience. Even though, future multi-centre studies are needed to validate the results from Singapore General Hospital’s, this research presents a promising potential that wider adoption could benefit MRI service providers globally.

Read the full paper to get insights on the study setup.