1. A method for accelerated segmented magnetic resonance (MR) image data acquisition, the method comprising: using a plurality of Radio Frequency (RF) pulses to excite one or more slices of an anatomical area of interest according to a predetermined slice acceleration factor; acquiring a collapsed image of the one or more slices in response to the plurality of RF pulses, wherein each of the one or more slices is individually acquired using a consecutive segment acquisition process; and applying a parallel image reconstruction method to the collapsed image to separate the collapsed image into a plurality of slice images.