How did you first come across the Hyperfine Swoop®?
“In the very early days, the Gates Foundation were considering investing in what was essentially a prototype machine in Guildford, Connecticut, and they asked me along as an external advisor, someone with no agenda. I walked into the room and it reminded me of the very first MRI images I had ever produced, twenty-five or thirty years earlier. But what struck me immediately was the potential. If they could do this already with something so small, where could this go?
I ended up sitting with the Gates Foundation team and making a case for how this technology could be deployed across lower and middle income countries. Within a couple of days, they asked me to lead the project. The rest is history.”
And you were the first institution in Europe to receive it. What has that looked like in practice?
“It means we've become a hub for training and knowledge exchange for what has grown into a global network of around fifty centres. We train staff, support installations and work with sites across Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas to optimise imaging for their specific needs.
We have machines in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, and more on the way. The primary focus across all of these sites is brain health research in young populations. Instead of waiting until a child is five years old to assess whether they are school-ready, we can now take an objective measure of brain development in the very first year of life. That changes what we can understand about whether an intervention — a micronutrient supplement, a malaria vaccine, better management of birth complications — is actually making a difference.”
It sounds like a technology that came along at exactly the right moment…
“It really did. People use the word disruptive quite loosely, but this genuinely is. For most of my career, progress in biomedical imaging has been incremental. The Swoop® system completely changed the conversation. Conventional MRI infrastructure costs millions of pounds and demands specialist environments. This system can be packed into a box, shipped across the world, taken out, plugged into a standard wall outlet and be operational within minutes. We even have sites running it on solar power.
One of the decisions I pushed for early on was to keep the focus narrow. There was a temptation to make this a whole-body scanner. We argued strongly that the world needs a good brain scanner first, and that’s where the energy should go. Almost a third of all MRI scans collected globally are brain scans. Getting that right before expanding the scope was the right call.”
Closer to home, what does this technology open up for UK clinical settings?
“The applications are broad. Surgical planning, triage, monitoring treatment response in conditions like MS — instead of waiting months to access a conventional scanner, this can provide the answer quickly and at a fraction of the cost. We've also seen real reductions in patient anxiety simply from people being reassured, via a quick scan, that there is no serious underlying cause behind their symptoms. That has a meaningful downstream effect on how often those patients need to engage with NHS services.”
And what about Xiel? How have they been to work with through all of this?
“When we first received our systems, Hyperfine had yet to establish a UK distribution network. Xiel stepped in quickly and the relationship has grown considerably since. They’ve been instrumental in enabling subsequent purchases, and we’ve used our facility as a training hub for other distributors, bringing teams in and getting them up to speed with technology that is still very new to the market. Xiel have been a brilliant partner throughout. I really can’t speak highly enough of them.”
Finally, what would you say to institutions that are sitting on the fence about this?
“Come and spend half a day with us. It takes a matter of hours to train. Someone to use the system. I often joke with visitors that if you can build a playlist on Spotify, you can operate this scanner.
I’d also say, don’t assume you’ve missed the moment. We are still very early in this journey. There is a great deal more to do over the coming years, and the most exciting work is still ahead of us.”
Find out more about the Hyperfine Swoop®
The Swoop® Portable MR Imaging System is available now across the UK and Ireland through Xiel, Hyperfine’s exclusive distribution partner. Whether you are a clinical team exploring how portable brain MRI fits without your neuroimaging infrastructure, or a research institution looking to expand your capabilities, Xiel’s team is ready to support that conversation.