28th August 1980

The world’s first full-body MRI scan

“The world’s first full-body MRI scanner was cobbled together with copper pipe from a local plumber and a tube from a children’s play park, according to a member of the pioneering team behind it,” reported BBC Scotland on 4 July 2018 in a piece commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the NHS.

MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging – scanners use strong magnetic fields to produce cross-section images of tissue. They are commonly used to scan human bodies without the use of x-rays.

The first full-body scanner, the MRI Scanner Mark One, was designed by the University of Aberdeen’s Professor James Hutchinson and used at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to scan a cancer patient from Fraserburgh. It revealed primary and secondary cancers in his chest, bones and liver.