Patients at Butler Memorial Hospital will soon be able to benefit from the latest in imaging technology, as the hospital began installing a new MRI machine on Monday.

Dr. Tom Raraigh, the director of radiology and cardiology at Butler Health System, said workers moved the machine into the hospital Monday, but it will be about three weeks before imaging technicians can start using it.

Between now and then, the room housing the new machine will have to be finished, and engineers have hundreds of cables to connect and a week of testing to ensure everything is perfect.

Once that’s done, Jeff Mechling, the hospital’s chief MRI technologist, said patients and doctors will have access to a larger MRI machine that will help the hospital treat more claustrophobic and bariatric patients, as well as do more work with brain imaging and patients who suffer from strokes, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors.

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