Saskatoon MRI clinic to be a hub for research and education

Photo: Saskatoon’s first private MRI clinic in Market Mall is slated to open in September. (Brent Bosker/650 CKOM)

When Saskatoon’s first privately owned and operated MRI and CT facility opens this fall it will fill a training gap in Saskatchewan.

The James Smith Cree Nation and Siemens Healthineers Canada finalized a Master Research Agreement Wednesday.  The deal will allow for education and research opportunities at the facility under construction in Market Mall.

Dragan Racic, vice-president of operations for the JSCN Medical Clinic LP said there’s currently a need for more hands-on clinical education for radiologists coming out of school.

“Once you educate people in the classroom you have to bring the students out to see the machine to do something on the machine,” said Racic.

Construction of a private MRI clinic at Market Mall in Saskatoon on March 20, 2019. (Brent Bosker/650 CKOM)

Wednesday’s partnership builds on a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the University of Saskatchewan last fall.

Racic said the agreement will allow researchers the opportunity to use the clinic’s state-of-the-art MRI 3 Tesla machine, which provides clearer, more detailed images than a standard MRI. The machine at the James Smith clinic will be the second of its kind in Saskatchewan, with the first housed at Royal University Hospital.

“The people who are involved into finding out how to improve health in the future would have the ability to have research time on the machine.”

According to Ministry of Health, between October and December last year, nine out 10 people waited 167 days for a public MRI.

Racic said they hope to help reduce the backlog, adding the clinic will able to do 20 scans a day.

Provincial guidelines require the clinic to provide a scan for someone on the public list at no charge for each private scan it conducts.