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Lego MRI Scanners donated to hospitals to help children cope with anxiety (2022)
- fusslo 3y agowhat gives ME anxiety is clicking on a website starting to read, and KNOWING the full screen modal is going to pop up trying to steal my attention
- tibbydudeza 3y agoMy 21y old daughter needed to get a CT scan after an unexpected seizure - she asked me to go in with her and hold her hand if it was possible. So they gave me a vest to wear like a baseball umpire and the scanner looked like a StarGate - they got out of the room then the machine spun up - part of the bed was then pulled in and it was all over in 30 seconds.
- andruby 3y agoI’d love to buy one and pay double to have another set donated.
- tiagod 3y agoSame, I'm fascinated with MRI and would love to buy a LEGO one
- wccrawford 3y agoThey don't seem to have provided the instructions online, but I found some people who have attempted to recreate it. https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-103049/ayayop/mri-scanner/#details https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-103049/ayayop/mri-scanner/#... https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-120823/mampepin/mri/#details https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-120823/mampepin/mri/#detail... I also found the sets of blocks on Ali Express as well.
- hpb42 3y agoI worked with designing a local oscillator for NMR spectroscopy, seeing this in LEGO makes me remember all the nice things from that period :) Would love to buy a LEGO set to have my own NMR machine at home. I couldn't find online, maybe they will release someday? It would be nice to extend the room with the actual racks of electronics and power amplifiers, they only added the operator computers.
- isaacfung 3y agoWho else was hoping to see a real MRI scanner built with LEGO?
- ChrisRR 3y agoI had assumed that this was the case. A child-sized MRI but with a lego fascia
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- iRomain 3y agoI was also intrigued to see a real MRI scanner built with Legos. Also disappointed to see they only give away 600 of these. What's the total cost of this marketing campaign for Lego? $20k?
- otteromkram 3y agoJust a heads up, but LEGO is also plural ;-) See section titled "Proper Use of the LEGO Trademark on a Web Site" at the following URL: https://www.lego.com/en-us/legal/notices-and-policies/fair-play/ https://www.lego.com/en-us/legal/notices-and-policies/fair-p...
- badcppdev 3y agoI grew up not using the plural form Legos. But I also grew up thinking that it's important to never let a big company tell you how to speak.
- averageRoyalty 3y agoSure, but they defined the term. It's reasonable to follow the pronounciation. Intentionally doing the opposite is a pretty strange stance. Still, people refuse to say 'gif' correctly either, so you just can't win sometimes.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mortallywounded 3y agoWhat hospitals need are more DVD/video players in the MRI room... that helped my daughter the most when she gets MRIs every three months. Kids can go through a lot with a little bit of distraction.
- bigtex 3y agoOne of the children’s hospitals north of Dallas does just that. I think they had a special Netflix account.
- bena 3y agoThere's also the Child's Play Charity (https://childsplaycharity.org/ https://childsplaycharity.org/) which provides toys and games to pediatric hospitals.
- CobaltFire 3y agoI can say that these machines get so much use in pediatric oncology wards (personal experience). It's an excellent way to let the kids get their minds off the chemo.
- phone8675309 3y agoI’m glad that it’s helpful as someone who works on making the fMRI and media displays on MRI machines work. I’m glad that my software work has made that a bearable process for your daughter and other kids.
- littlestymaar 3y agoI found the idea pretty cool, but then > The LEGO Foundation has announced it will donate 600 LEGO® MRI Scanners to hospitals worldwide Seriously LEGO, 600 for a worldwide campaign, your marketing campaign didn't have more budget than this? This would barely be enough to make a meaningful difference for Copenhagen alone! Using sick children to do brand marketing is always walking on a tight rope, but if you're actually helping them why not. But by giving only 600 LEGO sets, it's even below the smallest Rotary fundraiser you can find in rural places, this is beyond ridiculous.
- bena 3y agoI get it. This is a smaller set, around 500 pieces, so a retail value of about $50 US. So you're looking at an outlay of about $30,000. Which isn't a lot for the most popular toy brand on the face of the Earth. Lego could probably afford to provide a Lego MRI for every MRI machine on the face of the Earth and not break the bank. HOWEVER. This does look to be an employee-driven initiative. And I don't mean it's something chaired by an employee, I mean a dude in Billund just did this. Then brought it to management for expansion. And it's only a single part of Lego's Learning Through Play - (https://learningthroughplay.com/ https://learningthroughplay.com/) program, so it's possible this is like the extent of this project's budget.
- martin8412 3y agoIt's employee driven in collaboration with Odense University Hospital. It's part of a study, so handing out lego sets to every hospital on the planet with an MRI machine just doesn't make sense. The sets are assembled by volunteer Lego employees with bricks provided by Lego.
- bena 3y agoYes, I was pointing out that the second layer is kind of close to the surface as well. The surface layer is that Lego is providing sets to hospitals. Which is nice. The second layer is that they're just giving them out to 300 hospitals. Which seems stingy considering Lego's revenue. The next layer is that it is an employee driven collaboration with other entities to conduct a study to see how to best construct and use these sets to put kids at ease. Which is more complex.
- stefanpie 3y agoAt Emory university I got to see a cool idea to help kids get comfortable with MRI machines. Some Georgia Tech students built a fake MRI machine (a realistic mechanical structure with a sliding bed) that kids could still get into. The cool thing was that it had Bose speakers built into the fake machine so that they could play the sounds of a real MRI machine makes as that is a big aspect that makes kids get anxiety and fear of the machine. It was all in a separate room right by the waiting room and the room with the real MRI. It was so cool to see such a practical solution to patient care especially for kids. Edit: found some pictures online https://www.cores.emory.edu/csic/resources/imaging/mri_for_human/mockscanner.html https://www.cores.emory.edu/csic/resources/imaging/mri_for_h...
- random49586 3y agoThere's a pretty inspirational Ted Talk about the founder of IDEO, a design firm that created the first Apple mouse, where an MRI machine engineer went through their design process and created a fun experience for kids who were scared of the machines. It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16p9YRF0l-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16p9YRF0l-g and starts at about 6:00 and lasts for a bit over 2 minutes. The whole video is worth it though imo
- m3kw9 3y agoWhat they need is AR glasses and a physical sliding bench to replace all that
- salex89 3y agoErrr, no? First of all, the kid might freak out from the AI glasses itself, if it could even wear it considering size, weight and other possible health limitations the child might have. They might not ever seen an AI set, they're jittery as it is, and you're introducing another set of variables and strange things they have to figure out. Also, will they be able to comprehend that the things they are seeing in the AI image is an analogue of what will happen soon? It won't replace the "tactileness" of the machine and process, adults or companions can't guide them through a hologram in any immediate way.
- pipeline_peak 3y ago[flagged]
- sandworm101 3y agoDrugs. Give the patient some drugs to keep them calm. Having escorted a few family members to MRI appointments, I detect that the only reason not to drug patients is that the MRI staff lack the medical expertise to supervise drugged people. They are generally technicians rather than doctors/nurses. The situation is like dentistry imho. Most people are fine having with local antithetic, but there are dentists that specialize in anxious people who need actual sedation. So have the one MRI center with a doc to knock you out long enough for the machine to do its thing. The procedure for getting a patient in and out of the machine always seems to take much longer than the actual scan. It might seem a bit dystopian, but a line of unconscious patients already secured on gurneys could probably be moved much more quickly than people climbing in and out, minimizing the downtime between patients.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThey can, if necessary. Oral Valium is a much more likely first step, though. Heavy sedation carries significant risk.
- cantSpellSober 3y agoThey already do that > MRI staff lack the medical expertise to supervise drugged people They don't, in fact they are often trained to administer drugs and other things (like contrast agents) > unconscious patients already secured on gurneys That's a level that might require an anesthesiologist. Some places offer mirrored glasses at a 45-degree angle, allowing the patient to see outside of the machine. This often reduces anxiety.
- sandworm101 3y ago>> often trained to administer drugs and other things Not in the clinics I've seen. Maybe in full hospitals, but in my area the majority of MRIs are at small clinics where the staff are adamant that they cannot handle any drugs beyond contrast agents.
- cantSpellSober 3y ago
- pipeline_peak 3y agoI feel like "coping concepts" like this are why todays kids have more increased anxiety...It's medical imagery for heavens sake. There are some normal anxieties they just need to learn to face.
- mr_sturd 3y agoKids will be less likely to lie still if they're anxious; slowing down the diagnostic process.
- pipeline_peak 3y agoThey can't do a mock run?
- mr_sturd 3y agoEvery second can count in paediatrics, so won't always be possible.
- mhb 3y agoIn the $nnnnnnn MRI machine?
- phone8675309 3y agoNo, they don’t make mock MRI scanners at any significant volume, and an MRI scanner at a hospital is like an aircraft on the tarmac for an airline - every minute it’s not in use is a minute that the owner is losing money.
- chmod775 3y agoThese things aren't that expensive: about $1m - $3m for a top of the line one, and cost about $20k/month to operate on top of that. Depending on what kind of MRI you want, you can pay less than $200k. You can find used/refurbished GE Signa LX 1.5T's for ~$100k for instance. But let's assume you've got a million dollar top of the line model, the expected lifespan is 10 years, and you're using it 20 hours / day, then you need to account ~$100 per hour of usage. That's not a crazy amount in the medical world. Personnel costs of those operating / using it are going to outweigh the cost of the machine itself.
- mcbain 3y agoA friend's child was given one of these, and I'm envious. Not only is it a cool model but I also have to get regular MRI - I've got another one today in fact. Having the model has really helped with their anxiety and means we've been able to play with it together and talk about the process and noises, and make it a bit more normal.