Aspect Imaging and frog Collaborate to Bring Innovation and Ease-of-Use to MRI Technologies

With insights from some of the world’s brightest medical professionals, the two companies are creating powerful, compact and easy-to-use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies.

TEL AVIV — Aspect Imaging a life-science company, and frog, a global design and strategy firm, have joined forces to create easy-to-use and patient-friendly MRI systems that yield straightforward results more quickly than existing solutions. Together, the two companies have applied a human-centered design process to develop a completely new MRI category, designed from the ground up around the needs of users, in order to break boundaries in the field of medical MRI.

frog brought in experts — including nurses, specialists, radiologists, and administrators —throughout the product development process to help evaluate and co-create, leading to innovative and practical solutions. The immersive research performed for the WristView™, a game changing dedicated hand and wrist MRI system, and the Embrace Neonatal™ System, a newborn baby scanner, took place in clinical settings, including Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), in order to map workflow and identify ways to optimize the units for the specific contexts where they are used.

Combining interactive prototyping and testing with end-users around the world, frog and Aspect Imaging have created a completely new MRI category. The Embrace Neonatal™ System is designed to provide comfort and safety for the baby, while also allowing easy integration into the clinical and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit environment and workflow.

“The exciting thing about the collaboration with Aspect Imaging has been the possibility to completely reinvent a product category from the ground up, around the needs of the end-user,” said Thomas Sutton, Executive Creative Director at frog. “Aspect Imaging shares our belief that the customer doesn’t care about the technology, they care about the results, the workflow, the patient comfort and safety as well as the clinical information that the technology provides. This made them the perfect partner for our human-centered design approach, based upon observing, talking to, and co-creating with end-users and caretakers in the clinical environment.”

Aspect Imaging, part of Aspect International LLC, a Singapore based company, is a world leader in the design, development, and manufacturing of complete compact MRI and NMR systems. Used for medical, preclinical, and advanced industrial applications, the company develops both the WristView™ and Embrace Neonatal in its state-of-the-art facility in Israel.

Placed inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a hospital, the Embrace Neonatal™ System preps and scans newborn babies in less than an hour without the baby having to leave the NICU. The system includes everything necessary to provide continuous scanning and monitoring, and does not require any additional medical equipment. In addition, the unit doesn’t emit any external noise or energy and operates in any stable room temperature environment, with no need to install the system in a dedicated, shielded MRI facility.

The FDA cleared and CE approved WristView™ MRI System is a dedicated hand and wrist MRI system, which ensures a non-claustrophobic, stress-free patient experience, available at a fraction of the price of a conventional MRI system. The system is safe and does not require a specially shielded room or cooling systems. It provides results that can be easily accessed by doctors across a broad range of fields, and can be used in medical facilities that would not normally have the budget or the specialized staff required to operate a full-body MRI scan.

Together, through a process of collaborative design and construction, frog and Aspect Imaging are creating the imaging technology of the future, bringing the benefits of science and creative innovation to the world, and making the MRI accessible for all.