GUILFORD, Conn., Dec. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Hyperfine Inc., creator of the first FDA-cleared portable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device™, Swoop®, today announced a partnership with Raising Malawi, which built and co-operates Malawi’s only specialized pediatric hospital, the Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery & Intensive Care (MJC). Raising Malawi and Hyperfine are partnering to highlight the important research made possible at MJC with Hyperfine’s breakthrough portable MRI system—a partnership model that can be replicated to support medical research and improve patient care in other low-resource or developing world settings.
According to the World Health Organization, 90% of the world’s population does not have access to an MRI machine. In Malawi, the need is particularly acute as Hyperfine’s Swoop® device is 1 of just 2 working MRIs in the entire country of 19 million people. Swoop is poised to play an important role in addressing this inequity by improving access to medical imaging for millions of patients, particularly those in developing countries.
“Our mission is to better serve the children of Malawi, who deserve high quality healthcare and the latest medical technology, regardless of income or location,” said Madonna. “We are proud that Mercy James Centre patients are among the first in the world to benefit from Hyperfine’s cutting-edge MRI technology. With the generous support of Dr. Rothberg, Raising Malawi and Hyperfine are enabling research to lead to medical breakthroughs and ultimately, new life-saving treatments for children in Malawi and beyond.”
Half of Malawians are under the age of 15 and malaria remains a leading cause of death among children under the age of 5. Through a research partnership with the Mercy James Centre, Michigan State University procured a Hyperfine Swoop® portable MRI system™ to facilitate critical research on cerebral malaria—the most severe form of the disease—in order to develop new treatments and improve patient care. The research, supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, had previously been stalled for over a year when the traditional MRI system broke down. Since it was delivered and quickly put into use, the Swoop system has been used by clinicians and researchers to scan more than 200 children, serving an important role in this research as well as pediatric patient diagnoses and treatment.
In addition, Hyperfine’s founder, Dr. Jonathan Rothberg will personally donate $2 million to the organization which will support the hospital’s operations and build staff capacity in order to further expand use of the Hyperfine system and other innovative medical devices at the hospital.
“The mission of Hyperfine and other 4Catalyzer companies is to transform medicine through smart devices. It’s an honor to partner with Madonna and Raising Malawi with the joint goal of democratizing access to high quality healthcare for the children of Malawi,” said Dr. Rothberg. “We are proud to see the impact Swoop has been able to make in such a short amount of time. I look forward to continuing to explore how Hyperfine technologies can be deployed to benefit children in Malawi and other communities in need around the world.”
For more information about Hyperfine, please visit https://www.hyperfine.io. To find out how to support Raising Malawi and the Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery & Intensive Care, please visit https://www.raisingmalawi.org/.
About Hyperfine and the Swoop® Portable MRI System™
Hyperfine, Inc. is the groundbreaking medical device company that created Swoop®, the world’s first FDA-cleared portable MRI system™. Swoop was designed to enable rapid diagnoses and treatment for every patient regardless of income, resources, or location, pushing the boundaries of conventional imaging technology and expanding patient access to life-saving care. The Swoop® Portable MR Imaging System™ produces high-quality images at a lower magnetic field strength, allowing clinicians to quickly scan, diagnose and treat patients in a variety of clinical settings. Swoop can be wheeled directly to the patient’s bedside, plugs into a standard electrical wall outlet, and is controlled by an iPad®. Designed as a complementary system to conventional MRIs at a fraction of the cost, Swoop captures images in minutes, providing critical decision-making capabilities in emergency departments (ED), operating rooms (OR) and intensive care units (ICU), among others.
Hyperfine was founded in 2014 by Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, a serial entrepreneur who received the Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2016 for inventing Next Generation DNA sequencing and has founded multiple healthcare and technology companies, including 454 Life Sciences, Ion Torrent, CuraGen, Butterfly Network, and Quantum-Si.
About Raising Malawi
Madonna founded Raising Malawi in 2006 to address the poverty and hardship endured by Malawi’s orphans and vulnerable children. Raising Malawi partners with local organizations to provide Malawian children and their caregivers with critical resources including education and medical care. Built by Raising Malawi and opened in 2017, the Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery & Intensive Care includes Malawi’s first paediatric intensive care unit, three operating theatres dedicated to surgery in children, a day clinic, and a 50-bed ward.
SOURCE Hyperfine Inc.
