Rob Holtackers is a medical engineer at the Maastricht University Medical Centre focussing on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Although 1.5 T and 3 T systems are the current clinical fieldstrengths used for MRI, the staggering recent progress in hardware, software, and methodology help making low-field systems (<1.5 T) more powerful, more cost-effective, and more widely accessible. By overcoming the past limitations of low-field systems, high-performance low-field MRI will challenge the existing clinical field strengths of 1.5 T and 3 T.

In addition, given its reduced costs of purchase, instalment, and maintenance, and advantages in system siting, it will facilitate the more global dissemination of MRI to the benefit of a larger patient pool and reach geographical regions that have not traditionally had easy access to MRI. Rob's visit to the University Hospital in Lausanne (CHUV) will allow him to work with such a unique high-performance low-field MRI system, which is currently not available in the Netherlands, and to perform research at the highest level in this field.