customer story
Transforming MRI Efficiency: The Swift Rise of AI at Naugatuck Valley Radiological Associates (NVRA)
"We were extremely impressed with the implementation speed from the AIRS Medical team. There were no disruptions to our workflow or schedule."
Chris Beaulieu
Operations Manager at Naugatuck Valley Radiology
Transforming MRI efficiency
Seven years ago at RSNA, Chris Beaulieu, Operations Manager at Naugatuck Valley Radiological Associates’ (NVRA) Southbury location, was approached by a technology vendor claiming something extraordinary — that it was possible to scan a brain in just eight minutes. The catch? It required costly hardware and software upgrades.
Chris left RSNA knowing that faster scans were possible, but not realistic for NVRA at the time.
Six years later, Chris opened an email titled “You can reduce your MRI scan times by 50%” that had to do with a new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It was affordable and wouldn’t disrupt his team’s workflow.
The solution was called SwiftMR™, and it changed everything.
Within a couple of weeks, SwiftMR™ was installed at all four NVRA locations, including Southbury. The engineers at AIRS Medical worked around the team’s schedule without disruption. “They perfected it,” Chris remarked.
Chris and the team saw improvements within 24 hours of installation. Now several months in, they’ve increased their daily scan volume by 35% and scanned a remarkable 32 patients in one record-setting day.
Technologist value
MRI Technologists like Justin Kolakoski got some time back in their day. Before SwiftMR™, they constantly fell behind due to unpredictable schedule changes and minimal flexibility, but that’s all changed. “SwiftMR™ has created more flexibility in our workflow by freeing up time for paperwork, patient prep, fitting in an unplanned scan, or even taking a break,” he noted.
Patient value
Patients have come to appreciate the value of SwiftMR™ — even if they don’t know much about the technology that’s behind their shorter MRI scans. “We’ve had patients remark, unprovoked, how much quicker their scans were,” Chris said.
Radiologist value
Radiologists at NVRA agree that the image quality with SwiftMR™ was on par or better than conventional scans. “I didn’t think it was possible to increase throughput without compromising image quality, but it is,” Chris remarked.
Delivering what we promised
Seven years ago, reduced scan times seemed out of reach for imaging centers like NVRA. Today, SwiftMR™ makes them a reality, no matter the body part. Chris says it best: “SwiftMR™ delivered what was promised in the email — we’ve seen it firsthand.”
