Brigham and Women's Hospital opened the 5,700-gsf Advanced Multimodality Image Guided Operating (AMIGO) suite in December of 2011 in Boston. As the world’s first three-bay operating suite to house MRI, PET/CT, Ultrasound, and Angiography in one place, along with surgical navigation tools and image registering and integration software, AMIGO offers significant advancements to developing image-guided surgical treatment procedures.
Designed by Payette, the integrated clinical care and research facility features a central operating room linked to adjacent imaging rooms on either side, allowing the patient to remain positioned on the operating table while the ceiling-mounted MRI can move to the patient during a surgical procedure. A moving 33,000-pound magnet system on a ceiling-mounted track provides interoperable flexibility and permits rapid and seamless transitions between imaging and intervention. Within the same environment, multiple imaging activities can occur, allowing the patient to receive care from teams of multi-disciplinary specialists. The suite utilizes extensive lead, steel, and copper shielding to protect staff and patients from electromagnetic emissions.
Project team members include Suffolk Construction of Boston as the Construction Manager; BR+A Engineers of Watertown, Mass., as the mechanical and electrical consultant; RW Sullivan of Boston as plumbing and fire protection consultant; and Weidlinger Associates of Cambridge, Mass., as structural engineer.
