Planning an MR Suite: What Can Be Done to Ensure MR Safety?

In the past decades, various safety measures for magnetic resonance (MR) have been formulated by national and international standardization committees and professional non-standardization groups. These published standards and white papers on MR system safety include architectural installation and design guides for the MR suite, guidelines for MR safety experts, and MR marking practices for items used with MRI. Although the interests of the MR community are represented in documents pertaining to safety requirements for MR site planning, these documents show a lack of agreement among community members. For a comprehensive approach, the MR owner and MR user must consider all the current MR safety requirements regarding centralized MR suite planning, realization, performance of clinical or research services, and maintenance of the MR facility and must address the MR safety needs of all individuals as well as the MR procedural requirements of an MR suite.