Apparatus and methods provide a physiological status sensing device (40) for sensing a physiological status of a patient (4) and minimizing an amount of interference (78) generated during a resonance (MR) scan by a magnetic resonance (MR) system (8). The device (40) includes a first, active sensor (64) located to sense the physiological status and experience MR scan related interference and to generate a first signal (80) having a physiological status component (76) and an interference component (78). A second non-active sensor (70) is located closely adjacent to the first sensor (64) to experience substantially the same MR scan related interference (78) as the first sensor (64) and generate a second signal (82) having only the interference component (78). A circuit or processor (56, 84, 110, 116) subtractively combines the first (80) and second signals (82) to cancel the interference component (78).
