7 - Nobel in Medicine Awarded to MRI Pioneers

[6]
Nobel in Medicine Awarded to MRI Pioneers
[#] E. Guizzo, "Nobel in Medicine Awarded to MRI Pioneers" IEEE Spectrum, spectrum.ieee.org, October 2003. [Online]. Available: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/imaging/nobel-in-medicine-awarded-to-mri-pioneers. [Accessed: March 13, 2010].

One might say that the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine received by Paul C. Lauterbur of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England in 2003 was long overdue. Lauterbur developed the technology used in modern magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the early 1970s and around the same time Mansfield created new mathematical tools for more efficient processing of the signals generated by hydrogen nuclei. Regardless, the two were finally honored for their incredible achievement with the award, which represents a landmark achievement in the way medicine is practiced.

The procedure, initially cumbersome and quite difficult, has evolved into a practical and widely-implemented diagnostic imaging technique. MRI was a huge improvement over the state-of-the-art at the same, X-ray imaging, which exposes patients to potentially harmful radiation. MRI is a relatively simple procedure and allows diagnoses to be made without invading the patient with surgery.

In 2002, roughly 22,000 MRI machines were in use throughout the world, and more than 60 million MRI screens were conducted.