LIHUE >> Kauai’s health care has received a multimillion-dollar shot in the arm.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced Aug. 2 that it will grant more than $10.6 million to Wilcox Medical Center in Lihue to expand and develop its imaging programs and capabilities. The charitable trust made the announcement during a news conference at the medical center.

“The Helmsley Charitable Trust is thrilled to welcome Hawaii to our Rural Healthcare Program,” said Walter Panzirer, a trustee for the charitable trust, who made the announcement. “This grant — the first of what we expect to be many across the islands — will provide Kauai residents with top-notch diagnostic care closer to home so they don’t have to travel off-island for crucial scans and tests.”

The money will be used to purchase a new magnetic resonance imaging machine and renovate its existing MRI treatment space and enhance care for orthopedics, neurology and cardiology while expanding care for oncology.

It will also help upgrade Wilcox’s existing X-ray room to create an interventional radiology suite, which will allow specialists to look inside a patient’s body, make a diagnosis and then immediately treat the issue.

The money will also be used to create two residency sleep rooms for students of the Family Medicine Residency Program through the University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine.

“This funding will enhance our medical teams’ ability to discover an injury or illness, or to perform a lifesaving procedure, every day on Kaua‘i,” Wilcox President and CEO Jen Chahanovich said. “Wilcox is committed to staying at the forefront of medicine. This incredible investment enables us to recruit the best physicians to Kaua‘i and provide cutting-edge care to generations of families for years to come.”