The MRI Environment involves strong magnetic fields that can serious injury or death. Please understand and adhere to all of the safety procedures including:

  • Do NOT enter the scanner suite unless you are properly trained and certified by Larry White. The scanner suite includes the control room and equipment room outside the scanner.
  • NEVER take a visitor or anyone who has not been properly screened into the scanner room itself.
  • Do NOT bring any metal objects into the scanner room.
  • NEVER leave a participant alone in any room of the scanner suite (including the control room).
  • Faculty Principal Investigators are responsible for the safety and actions of their participants, students, and staff.

SCANNER SUITE ACCESS:

The scanner suite is the room around the scanner that includes the control room and equipment room. No user is allowed scanner suite access until they complete all levels of MRI training.

MRI TRAINED USERS:

Anyone wishing to operate the scanner and have scanner suite access must complete all safety training and a certifying test once that person has attended and participated in at least 20 scan sessions and feels they are proficient in all scanning procedures.

See the MR Safety Training page for more details on how to get certified.

SCAN BUDDIES:

MRI studies must be conducted by a minimum of two green badge certified users. If the study requires an investigator to leave during the scanning, you may need more people to ensure two green badges are always present.

The CBSN staff can be available as green-badge users but only with advance notice.

MRI RESEARCH  OBSERVERS:

Anyone who will be in the scanning area needs to earn a yellow badge (take the MR safety course). This includes people observing an MRI study from the control room. No one should ever go into the scanner room itself without being properly screened.

SCANNER ETIQUETTE:

Common sense and courtesy are the rules of thumb. Be aware, note unsafe situations before they happen, and leave the scanner they way you would like it to be left for yourself. Please be guided by the following:

Safety  –  The  principle  investigator  of  the  study  and  his/her  designated  users  are responsible to make sure the scan room is a safe environment.  Never bring metal objects into the scan room. Please review screening forms carefully prior to the scanning session. If there is any question about exclusion criteria, simply do not scan. Make sure all volunteers are free of all metal before entering the scan room. Always provide hearing protection to volunteers. Never leave a participant alone in any room of the scanner suite. Follow guidelines that are taught in safety class.

Courtesy – Do not remove any cables or equipment from the scanner suite that do not belong to you. Return any equipment changes to their original state (i.e., projector screen adjustments). Do not leave random loose cables in the scan room, as they can cause artifacts and accidents.

Cleanliness – Keep the control room clean (throw away garbage, ear plugs, etc). Pick up any loose cables or equipment  (return to storage) when you are finished using them. Fold and put away linen, and cushions when finished using them.  Place used linen and scrubs in the provided laundry bins.  Keep the scrub shelves organized and neat. When you are finished with your experiment, the scan suite should look like you were never there.

Do not go over your allotted time – The control room and scanner should be turned over to the next user group at the beginning of their session. This means you should leave time at the end of your slot to remove your participant and tidy the room for the next group. Even if you get started late, your session must end on time.

Responsibilities – As well as what is mentioned above, responsibilities also include filling out the log book, filling out and providing a copy of the screening and consent forms to Larry White, backing up your data to the appropriate server. Please report any scanner issues or broken equipment to Larry right away (lawrence_white@fas.harvard.edu).

INCIDENTAL FINDINGS:

The scanner we use has no history of clinical use and the sequences are not meant for clinical evaluation. Your consent makes clear that we do not use the sequences for detection of clinical conditions and, if asked, you should verbally make clear that we do not examine the scans for abnormalities. It is important that we do not imply in anyway that the scans will be checked or evaluated by an expert for the purposes of clinical evaluation.

On occasion, investigators may notice a finding that seems abnormal. If this occurs you must report the finding directly to Mark Eldaief (Mark.Eldaief@mgh.harvard.edu). Please do NOT tell the volunteer about the finding until it has been reviewed, as you may cause undue alarm and anxiety.

SUBJECT CONFIDENTIALITY:

To ensure protection of the subject’s confidentiality, the subject’s name and date of birth should never be entered at the scanner console. Where the name is requested, please enter only the coded ID (e.g. 090123_XXXX). Do not use the subject’s initials as part of the coded ID. Where the date of birth is requested, please enter only the birth year using January 1 as the day (e.g. 1/1/1988).

PROVIDING IMAGES TO PARTICIPANTS:

Please do not provide images to the participants.

IRB APPROVAL:

You can only scan subjects for research studies if you have proper IRB approval. All individuals running scans as designates of a principal investigator must be listed on the IRB approval associated with the study. It is the responsibility of the principal investigator to make sure that safety and other procedures are followed. It is also the responsibility of the principal investigator to ensure that yearly IRB re-approvals are obtained on time. You cannot scan if your IRB has expired!

SCHEDULING:

There are two avenues for requesting time on the scanner:

1) Recurring Blocks

Principal Investigators will have the opportunity to request recurring time blocks on the schedule. PIs will receive an email announcement calling for fixed block requests. This will occur approximately every 3 months for the following 3-month time period.

2) Open Slots

Principal Investigators or green-badge members of their labs may request open slots on the MRI schedule. To request an open slot, login to the CBSN calendar (CBSN calendar link) and click on an available time slot to begin the reservation process. Detailed instructions for registering for a CBSN calendar account and reserving slots can be found on our Policies page.

If you are unable to complete these steps for any reason please contact Caroline (wcwest@fas.harvard.edu). You may email Larry (lawrence_white@fas.harvard.edu) to sign up for time until your issues are resolved. Note: The PI must be cc’d on any email requesting MRI scan slots.

TO VIEW THE SCHEDULES PLEASE GO TO:

ACCESSING YOUR DATA:

The FAS Secure Environment (FASSE) a central enabling infrastructure for neuroimaging teaching and research whose mission is to provide high performance, high power, robust, reliable and secure computer systems and human expertise to meet the challenges of neuroimaging research and teaching. The FASSE cluster is a collaboration between the Center for Brain Science and the FAS Division of Research Computing. It consists of a compute cluster with a vnc (fasseood) interface and several login nodes.

FASSE a resource for the Harvard Neuroimaging Community and their collaborators. To request a new account, fill out the online Account Request form. Requests for new accounts will be verified with lab PIs, so please allow a few days. When your account is ready, you will be sent instructions for logging onto the system. For instructions on how to access FASSE, see our Getting Started Guide.

CBSCentral is our repository to transferring data from the MRI scanner. For instructions on how to obtain your MRI data, follow the Getting Started Guide, or see the CBSCentral FAQ

DEVICES BROUGHT INTO THE SCANNER ROOM:

Larry White and Ross Mair will be in charge of installing all devices in the scan room.

Under no circumstances should anyone bring a device into the room without Larry or Ross’s direct assistance. All devices, pieces of equipment (no matter how apparently benign) must be reviewed for their (1) safety for use in the scanner environment, (2) that their presence in the scanner room will not adversely effect the quality of image data, and (3) that they can be effectively and safely removed and stored.  For instance, it is very important that all electrical equipment and cabling be shielded and kept as far from the magnetic field as possible.  Just because something is shielded does not mean that it is not still magnetic. We are happy to try to accommodate your needs as best we can. If any permanently mounted or installed equipment needs to be moved, Larry must also be directly involved as most equipment is where it is for a reason. If you experience a problem with any stimulus equipment please notify Larry White right away.


For more information about the Neuroimaging facility please visit our website at:

https://cbs.fas.harvard.edu/facilities/neuroimaging/

To receive important notices about all imaging center activity please sign up for the CBSN email list at: https://web.lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/lists/cbsn.lists.fas.harvard.edu/

If you have any questions contact Larry White (lawrence_white@fas.harvard.edu) or the Principal Investigator with whom you are working.