Policies & Forms

 

Introduction

The University of Miami 4.7T Animal MRI Research Facility is a fee-for-service entity created to enhance the experimental capabilities available to basic and clinical research scientists at the University of Miami.  The facility is located on the 8th floor of the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute on the University of Miami’s Medical Campus.

Facility Tours

Only authorized personnel who have completed all of the safety education requirements are allowed in the facility without direct supervision.  Directors and managers of the facility are available to provide guided tours for small groups of people who are interested in seeing the facility.  For personal safety, people with heart pace makers or other surgically implanted metal devices will not be allowed to participate in tours.  Please contact Dr. Kyle R. Padgett to arrange a tour.

Facility Access

All users must attend a 1.5 hour MRI safety course covering the specific safety concerns and policies of this facility, pass a short written examination and complete a MRI safety screening form before using the facilities.

Safety Policy

Magnets in any NMR/MRI facility can be dangerous if not properly used, and the 4.7T MRI system employed in our facility is a very high-field system all users and regular guests and visitors are required to attend and complete a 1.5 hour safety training session before getting access to the facility.  Please contact Dr. Kyle R. Padgett details.

A summary of the safety issues follows:

The magnet is always turned on. This poses several SERIOUS DANGERS:

  1. Metallic objects should never be brought around the magnets. They can become flying projectiles and can severely damage the magnet and injure or kill a person.
  2. Heart pacemakers will stop functioning and surgically implanted metallic devices can be dislodged around the magnets.
  3. Magnets occasionally quench. A magnet quench is the rapid loss of liquid helium into the room. People can die of asphyxiation, by freezing, or both if proper precautions are not taken during a magnet quench. In the event of a quench it is important to leave immediately.

It is the responsibility of users to learn and follow safety guidelines. Serious or repeated violations of safety policies will result in loss of access to the facility.

Visitors

NMR facilities may be dangerous places for visitors. Untrained visitors and guests may be at great risk of personal injury and may provide significant dangers to other users. Unauthorized visitors who are not part of a guided tour are not allowed into the facility. Users are not allowed to give tours of the facility. Most importantly, users are not allowed to bring guests into the facility without first contacting either Dr. Kyle R. Padgett or Dr. Pradip M. Pattany. A "guest" is any person who is not an authorized user (even scientific collaborators or assistants). Guests will be granted facility access according to the following guidelines:

  1. If a guest needs to enter the facility more than once, he or she will be required to take the safety class.
  2. For a single visit, a guest must be approved and supervised at all times by Dr. Kyle R. Padgett.
  3. Guests are not allowed in the dangerous MRI acquisition room.  This room directly houses the MRI system and is demarcated by an MRI Warning poster.

It is the responsibility of the users to follow the guest policy. Violations of any of these rules may result in the loss of privileges by the user.

Time Requests & Cancellations

  1. Users must complete an application form that is reviewed by the 4.7T MRI User Committee.  Before completing any application we urge that the PI contact Dr. Pradip M. Pattany and Dr. Kyle R. Padgett to discuss the optimal imaging methodologies that could give the best possible results.  Also, if the project is planned to be submitted for funding it should be discussed with Drs. Pattany and Padgett for technical input and funding for the magnet use as well as and Co-Investigators % time and effort on the proposals.
  2. Only users with approved MRI protocols may schedule time.  Please contact Dr. Kyle R. Padgett for information concerning the application process.
  3. Time requests are made to users with approved protocols by emailing those requests to Dr. Kyle R. Padgett.  While conversations may be helpful in scheduling time an official email request must follow all conversations to ensure common misunderstandings do not occur.  The email time request should contain the date/s requested, the number of experiments per date requested, the start time requested and any other pertinent information.
  4.  MRI scheduling is done on a first-come first-serve basis.  Therefore, it is recommended that time requests are submitted as early as possible.
  5. Cancellations must be received 48, or more, hours prior to the scheduled start of the experiment by Dr. Kyle R. Padgett.  Cancellations received with less than 48 hours notification may result in billing or loss of privileges by the user.

Lab Courtesy

Users are responsibility for cleaning up trash, samples, and personal items before leaving the facility. All users are expected to follow proper chemical and biological hygiene protocols. Preparation time and cleanup time must be included in the requested MRI time, and the instrument must be clean and ready to use by the end of a user's scheduled time.
Users must start and stop their experiments on time. If an experiment exceeds the scheduled time, we may be forced to stop the experiment.

4.7T Animal MRI Research Facility Acknowledgements and Authorship
All publications that include data from the 4.7T Animal MRI Research Facility should state:

"MRI data were obtained at the 4.7T Animal MRI Research Facility at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami."

Please send Dr. Kyle R. Padgett references of all publications using the facility. We would also appreciate a report of awards, grants, and other honors related to the facility that you receive.
Additionally facility faculty or staff should be included in authorship on publications when appropriate.

Data Storage, Processing, and Analysis

MRI data sets can be very large. The computers running the MRI system are only for data collection and not data storage or analysis.  A data handling plan specific to a study may be implemented but it is the responsibility of the user to maintain the integrity, security and redundancy of their MRI data. A typical data handling plan includes the transfer of MRI data to a UM network hard-drive where the data will be promptly removed by the user for processing and long-term storage.

Data older than 4 weeks can be deleted at the discretion of the directors and managers of the facility without notification to the owner of the data.

Payment for Services

Payment for MRI services must be arranged before using the facility by contacting Dr. Kyle R. Padgett. Payment may be made directly from a federal, state, local, or private research grant. IDR is the preferred and primary method for most users. It is the responsibility of users to include all necessary instrument and consulting fees in the budgets of grants which will utilize the facility. The facility Directors or Managers are available to help estimate instrument time and cost requirements, please contact Dr. Kyle R. Padgett  or Dr. Pradip M. Pattany for additional information.

Billing Policy:

Users will be billed for the time scheduled or the time actually used, whichever is larger.

Users will be billed for unused time if it is not cancelled 48 hours or more in advance.

 

Downloadable Forms (COMING SOON!)