Filipino radiographer in UK designs Lego MRI scanner for anxious patients

A Filipino radiographer based in the United Kingdom hopes to ease his patients’ worries with an MRI scanner made of Lego. He needs 10,000 votes to make it a reality.

Apollo Exconde is a senior MRI radiographer who has experienced patients refusing to undergo an MRI because of their anxieties. These include first-timers, kids and plus-sized patients.

MRI or magnetic resonance imaging is a scan that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to make detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body. It helps in diagnosing a disease or injury, such as a brain injury, cancer or heart disease.

A patient must lie still in a tube to get the procedure, which can make some uneasy because of the confined space. He hopes that explaining how an MRI scanner works to patients through Lego would make getting an MRI a more appealing experience.

In an August interview with U.K. health technology company InHealth Group where he works, Exconde said Lego blocks “appeals to everyone, from the elderly to the young ones.”

Exconde designed his own open MRI scanner made of building blocks, which he entered into Lego Ideas. Lego Ideas is a platform to pitch new Lego designs for a chance to have it created. After reaching 10,000 votes online, the proposal must pass an expert review before it is produced and sold.

Exconde’s pitch can receive votes through this page.

His design includes a model of the machine, a sliding table where the body will lie down, and an area where the technician stays and controls the scanner.

Image: Lego Ideas/Open MRI

To make the explanation more realistic, the coil — which is necessary to create the images — is interchangeable, depending on the body part to be scanned.

Exconde currently has 313 days to reach 10,000 votes. He is nearly halfway with over 4,300 votes as of writing. JB

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