Speech opening Brompton Hospital Magnetic Resonance Unit

Chairmen and Members of the Board of Governors of the Brompton Hospital, Lord Weinstock, Lord Carr and other Patrons and Directors of the CORDA Charity, Ladies and Gentlemen.

When it was suggested to me that I should formally open this Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit I was delighted to agree.

It represents so much that I warmly support. [end p1]

First, it represents an exciting advance in science and technology used for medical welfare.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is not new. It was discovered in the 1940s and is a recognised analytical technique in physics and chemistry.

But its application to medicine is relatively new. [end p2]

The production of medical images by means of nuclear magnetic resonance was invented in the United States in 1973.

But most of the important work on developing it into a practical technique was done at the Universities of Nottingham and Aberdeen and at the Central Research Laboratories of EMI. [end p3]

I had the pleasure of seeing one of the prototypes at Aberdeen University in September 1982. I was greatly impressed by what I saw, although the machine was a prototype and was much less streamlined than the one we will see today.

The N.M.R. scanner presents many advantages even over the computerised tomography scanner, revolutionary as that was. [end p4]

It can not only produce cross-sectional pictures of the body, but it can produce them in any direction and can even produce a three-dimensional effect and it is possible to quantify flow – so valuable in cardiology.

It is very sensitive to tissue characteristics and so promises to be able to identify a variety of physical conditions much more easily than has been possible hitherto. [end p5]

And unlike X-rays it does so without using any ionising radiation and at potentially lower cost in the future than other scanning techniques. It is already in clinical use in the United Kingdom and the United States, and has been applied to the diagnosis of cancer, of brain conditions and of heart disease. In this Unit the study of heart disease is being pushed further. [end p6]

The second reason why I warmly welcome this project is that Britain has taken a leading part both in research and, I am delighted to say, in manufacturing the equipment we see in this Unit today.

I have mentioned the research work done at Nottingham and Aberdeen and by EMI. [end p7] The first commercially made magnetic resonance scanner in the world was introduced in the Hammersmith Hospital in 1981. Now more than a hundred such scanners have been installed worldwide, and the market for them is expected to rise rapidly. [end p8]

The equipment we shall see in this Unit today was made by Picker International which is a subsidiary of GEC—this company lies second in the world in installing this equipment.

Another British company—Oxford Instruments—make the magnets that go into most of the world's scanners. Eighty-five per cent of their sales are made overseas. [end p9]

So this is an area where Britain has not only led the research: we are also taking a lead in an area where we are not always so good—manufacturing and marketing the equipment throughout the world.

Third, I welcome this project because it owes so much to voluntary effort. In the first place, it would never have happened without the drive and enthusiasm of Professor Donald Longmore, the consultant in charge of this Unit. [end p10] He has been an inspiration, and he is the first to acknowledge the able support of his small and dedicated team.

And while the Government and the Special Health Authority of the National Heart and Chest Hospital have helped to get this project off the ground, I am delighted to say that a large part of the finance is being raised voluntarily, primarily through the heart diseases charity, CORDA. [end p11] I am glad to see Lord Carr and his fellow patrons and directors of the CORDA Charity here today. I thank them for their efforts and I wish them the success they deserve in raising support for this very important project.

Heart disease is one of the major causes of disablement and death. [end p12] This project promises so much because it offers not just to contribute to the diagnosis of heart disease but to its diagnosis at a sufficiently early stage to allow for its prevention. Lord Lytton once wrote that: “A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.” [end p13] I do not think that he was speaking in a medical sense, but I hope that this project, and the work undertaken here, will contribute to producing more good hearts in this and future generations. I hope too, that its success will be a good omen for the new heart and chest centre which is planned for the site next door to this unit. [end p14]

I have much pleasure in declaring the Unit formally open and wishing it and its supporters the best of success.