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- Magnetic resonance imaging: the long path to the patient
![](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/2d4246ecb1ebc039/e1dd5fbaa98e/v/ea03793a8ec5/History-of-MRI.png)
Magnetic resonance imaging: the long path to the patient
The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an exciting story of innovation spanning four decades – if not several centuries – and two Nobel prizes. But the fact that MRI scanners are now used in patient care all over the world is also thanks to industrial research and development.
A mathematician from the time of Napoleon
Back then a genius, today a unit of magnetism
![Nikola Tesla in his laboratory.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/c2997f93764729a7/026a0617de9e/v/03a8372ddc58/tesla-in-lab.jpg)
Nobel prize for magnetic resonance
![The first wooden MR research laboratory, Erlangen, 1979.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/a3a42f980c41c5e4/c93545818b48/v/208c7c12c7da/erstes-forschungslabor.jpg)
Use on living organisms - and another Nobel prize
MRI let loose in Germany - on a pepper
![MR image of a bell pepper, 1980.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/3fe8963741afb404/6f81fe7e15fe/v/b55bfacbe640/mrt-paprika.jpg)
Giant tubes rolled out
![Tesla magnet with Faraday cage, 1979.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/4d318d7154fa09a3/94bbc3a0b46a/v/9258f9780ca2/tesla-magnet-kaefig.jpg)
![Examination with the first MAGNETOM, 1983.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/24137e1c490148fc/cebb7b568d7b/v/a3c3d24489e7/magnetom-routine.jpg)
Finding its way into routine
![Examination with the first MAGNETOM, 1983.](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/2450ba89fecac8f4/c7d8f5db5d15/v/c080d1e73a81/spaceoccupied-EN.jpg)
A special kind of coolant
![A greener footprint in MRI](https://corporate.webassets.siemens-healthineers.com/a613cc7bdba84ebf/24b2185847ee/v/504600243fd3/A-greener-footprint-MRI.png)
More powerful, more usable, and less time-consuming
A Milestone reached
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Philipp Grätzel von Grätz lives and works as a freelance medical journalist in Berlin. His specialties are digitalization, technology, and cardiovascular therapy.
The statements by Siemens Healthineers customers described herein are based on results that were achieved in the customer’s unique setting. Since there is no “typical” hospital and many variables exist (e.g., hospital size, case mix, level of IT adoption) there can be no guarantee that other customers will achieve the same results.