Aspect Imaging Nabbed $150 Million and FDA Clearance of the First Dedicated Neonatal MRI System

After previously securing $150 million in funding, Aspect Imaging has been granted Food and Drug Administration clearance for the first magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) intended for placement in neonatal intensive care units (NICU)

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aspect Imaging (http://www.aspectimaging.com/), a developer of compact high-performance MRI systems, has announced today, that it has received Food and Drug Administration clearance for the first neonatal-dedicated MRI system, Embrace^TM Neonatal MRI system (https://www.neonatalmri.com/). Since Embrace^TM is specifically designed for neonatal brain and head imaging in the neonatal intensive care unit, the unnecessary time and risk involved in transporting infants to an MRI facility outside the NICU is avoided.

The Embrace^TM Neonatal MRI system enables safer imaging of vulnerable newborns, allowing medical staff and parents to be present during scanning. With this dedicated NICU MRI scanner, preparation and scanning takes less than an hour.

The Embrace^TM Neonatal MRI System does not require a special safety zone or an RF-shielded room, and can therefore be placed inside the NICU. Since the system is fully enclosed, medical device implants in close proximity to the system are not required to be “MR Conditional” or “MR Safe”.

The operating and maintenance costs of the Embrace^TM MRI system are much lower than conventional superconductor MRIs due to Aspect’s magnet technology which requires no cooling system and has low power consumption.

“The vision of Aspect Imaging is to bring clinical diagnostic information to where it is needed the most, and to help neonatologists with their diagnostic decisions. It is now possible to routinely scan premature babies in the NICU, almost immediately after birth, helping to increase the quality of life and improve care for newborns, by assisting in the early detection of health issues, enabling at-risk babies to grow into healthy children,” said Uri Rapoport, CEO and Founder of Aspect imaging.

About Aspect Imaging

Aspect Imaging (http://www.aspectimaging.com) is a world leader in the design and development of complete, compact MRI and NMR systems. Our unique technology platform is the backbone for a wide range of products, spanning preclinical, medical, oil and gas, and advanced industrial markets. In the medical market, Aspect Imaging has several medical programs underway, including WristView^TM which is in full production, and a dedicated Stroke MRI for the ER which is under development. In the preclinical research market, the M-series compact MRI delivers a wide variety of in vivo and ex vivo applications. Advanced industrial applications include rheological analysis of both food products and industrial drilling mud with Aspect Imaging’s Flowscan^TM. The AI-60 NMR is used for real-time, continuous flow-through stream analysis of dense and opaque materials such as crude oil, HF, and silicon production.