Vet college suggests its MRI could shrink the wait times for P.E.I.'s human patients

With some P.E.I. patients expecting to wait two years for an appointment to get a magnetic resonance imaging scan, the Atlantic Veterinary College has stepped forward to say it's open to sharing its MRI machine.  

The Island's only machine currently being used for human scans is based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, and it's in high demand. 

The Charlottetown-based vet college has had its own MRI machine since May 2023, using it to help diagnose medical issues in everything from turtles and cats to horses and cows.  

"We would be very open to making this unit accessible to the human patients," said Dr. Dominique Griffon, the dean of the Atlantic Veterinary College. 

"At the moment, it's not utilized to its full potential. We see about 110 cases in one year, so there is room for adding more MRIs."

New data from the province's health authority shows MRI wait times are at an all-time high. The unit at the AVC could theoretically help with the backlog — but there are hurdles.

Griffon said the AVC needs to build a reception area for human patients, so that they don't have to use the same entrance as dogs or horses. 

And from a legal standpoint, veterinarians aren't qualified to perform MRIs on humans, so the province would have to provide personnel. 

"Currently on the veterinary side, a regular registered veterinary technologist can perform an MRI with additional training," said Griffon.

"However, on the human side, it requires a specific training that our current technicians do not have."

As well as finding staff to perform the MRIs, the AVC and Health P.E.I. would have to agree on who covers the costs to operate and maintain the machine, which can be high. 

The college is in the process of fundraising for a training hospital expansion that would include a new patient reception area, but it hasn't reached the $6 million goal yet. 

The Atlantic Veterinary College's machine has never done an MRI on a human, but Griffon said that won't be an issue. It's certainly big enough, and has the same definition of images needed in human medicine.