Magnetic Stories transforms a giant, cold, scary machine into a gateway to a delightful experience for pediatric patients.

Siemens Healthineers is the world’s top 2 manufacturer of MRI machines. Our MRI machines are sold directly to hospital purchasing agents, with a new 3T machine costing between 1.6 million and 2.2 million USD.

With cost pressures from the used-machine market and our competitors, it is imperative for Siemens Healthineers to differentiate not just on our superior product, but on the value and service offered.

With Magnetic Stories, this innovation changes how hospitals, radiologists, parents, and children interact with Siemens Healthineers’ MRIs.

Cancer is the leading cause of deaths for children and teenagers in Portugal, with more than 400 new cases every year (in a country with 11 million people). The survival rate in the country is around 85%, but the consequences of treatment are responsible for a lower quality of life for 2/3 of survivors.

Getting an MRI is a scary experience for most children. Radiology technicians usually prefer to have patients under 12 fully sedated with general anesthesia, in order to help them get through the anxiety-inducing experience. For kids over 12, more than 85% report having a fear of the MRI machine due to the noises.

Siemens Healthineers, the major manufacture of MRI machines in Europe, was in a prime position to help turn this negative experience with their product around. And Leya, one of Portugal’s leading children’s book publishers, was an obvious choice to help bring Magnetic Stories to life, as it enabled us to bring something kids already love into an experience that frightens them, and make it more pleasant using the power of innovation and storytelling.

Siemens Healthineers is constantly bringing breakthrough innovations to market. This can mean employing the latest AI technology to increase scan speed and improve image quality of its MRIs. But it can also mean leveraging the power of storytelling to improve patient experience. This was our goal with Magnetic Stories, a library of unique audiobooks crafted to integrate the sounds of the most common pediatric MRI scans, turning their dreadful sounds into a delightful narrative.

Magnetic Stories is a unique audiobook collection that transforms a scary MRI into a wondrous experience for younger patients.

Every MRI scan makes a unique sequence of sounds, so it is possible to predict when each of them will occur in the scan. We collected the sound sequences of the most common pediatric MRI scans (cranial, liver, spine, sela turcica, and ears) and, in partnership with renowned authors and sound designers, produced audiobooks that synch story moments precisely with each sound of the scan.

With Magnetic Stories, we are giving new and delightful meaning to all MRI noises –turning the fastspin echo beeping noise into a cute robot talking, and turning the constant pumping noise of the helium recondenser from the cold head into the sound of a flying train, for example.

Our target audience is diverse, covering pediatric patients and their parents, as well as radiologists and hospital purchasing departments.

An MRI produces one of the loudest and most agonizing sounds. If this is disturbing for you, imagine what it can be for children under cancer treatment. The harder it gets for patients, the more difficult it becomes for the medical staff, with much productivity being lost to spending time consoling young children or, even worse, having to give them anesthesia.

Our approach to change this ordeal was not just to remove the problem of anxiety but to create an experience that children would love and, instead of avoiding their exams, would want to come back to again and again. That’s why Siemens Healthineers partnered with Leya to create Magnetic Stories. Children hate being cancer patients, but still love stories. Especially if they can make their treatment less stressful.

09/2023: we collected the sound sequence of the most common pediatric scans (from the train noise-like sound of helium re-condensing pump to the beeping of the fast spin echo).

11/2023: market research with radiology technicians and parents of pediatric patients to uncover customer needs and assess the idea in concept form.

12/2023: we teamed up with children’s book authors, who created stories that leverage the MRI noises as unique storytelling elements.

02/2024: thorough sound design and testing the stories with children.

03/2024: in collaboration with radiology technicians at CUF, we integrated our recorded stories to the set-up of different MRI scanners, so that each audiobook could play in perfect synch with its corresponding MRI.

Now, we are expanding our scan library and creating multilingual stories to launch Magnetic Stories in Spain and other European countries. We are developing an integrated AI that writes stories in real-time based on any scan.

Siemens Healthineers launched Magnetic Stories at CUF, Portugal’s leading hospital network and it’s now available at all 25 CUF hospitals and clinics.

The next step is expanding to Spain, using the Iberian Peninsula as the launch pad for other European countries like Germany, Italy, and the UK.

The pilot project was a success, helping Siemens Healthineers establish its brand as one of the most innovative, and patient-centric MRI manufacturers. The Magnetic Stories audiobooks transcended the hospital setting and are now available at Leya’s online store on Kobo, which is evidence that the stories aren’t just good in the context of an MRI, they are just good stories that kids love.

Some patients need to repeat exams every two months, so an initiative like this becomes a powerful ally throughout their care journey. With Magnetic Stories, we are turning every MRI scan into an experience of magic and wonder.