A shim coil device for compensating for basic magnetic field inhomogeneities during medical magnetic resonance imaging of a breast of a patient, said shim coil has a housing with a contact surface that configures to bear against a patient, and at least one shim coil element having a shim coil axis. The shim coil is arranged on the patient such that the at least one shim coil axis has an angle of inclination α to the contact surface and/or to a patient surface, where α is ≧45° and α is ≦135°.