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by thaw135793 hours ago |
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upvoteby switchbak2 hours ago|
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"MRIs are actually widely available in most cities at reasonable cost" - I live in one of those first-world countries, and our citizens regularly wait many months if not over a year to get a single MRI scan. Yes, it's not just an issue of the MRI but the entire medical system, but the point still stands. Were there machines that were one or more orders of magnitude cheaper and simpler to run - I think we would see a marked increase in availability.

I agree on your ground-truth desire, and I would hope they've done a lot of that to validate what we see here.

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upvoteby thaw135792 hours ago|
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I completely agree that's an issue, although more of an economic / public health policy issue than a technical one. There are low field MRI systems, such as the one made by Hyperfine that are, like you say, an order of magnitude cheaper and simpler to run. We should have these everywhere, IMO

https://www.hyperfinemri.com/

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upvoteby scratcheee2 hours ago|
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MRIs are fundamentally expensive. Yes we can bring the price down a bit, and we can set more money aside for them, but they’ll always be limited by their price.

Even if this technique is much worse (I can certainly believe it is) the price might allow uses that would never be practical with MRI even with the best financial support. For example, ultrasound might be viable for use in GPs or small medical facilities which could never dream of justifying an MRI machine.

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upvoteby jmount1 hours ago|
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Why would they remain fundamentally expensive? It is a fixed machine (so eventually you recoup the investment) and running consumes nothing other than electricity and a paper gown. MRIs cost under $200 in Japan.
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upvoteby thaw135792 hours ago|
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Yes totally, and ultrasound already does wonders in that regard. It's a good strategy to focus on the specific use cases that match the strengths of the tech. I think MRI will be useful in validating and mapping out those cases.
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upvoteby k33n2 hours ago|
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Many months to a year for an MRI? Wow, in the USA, we can get MRI's the same day or at worst case, week. It's been that way for a decade or more.
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upvoteby lostlogin2 hours ago|
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> Wow, in the USA, we can get MRI's the same day or at worst case, week.

You can. And the cost is higher than almost anywhere on earth.

You can get them quickly in most places with a publically funded healthcare system, it’s just that a priority patient is very very sick and you never want to be that person.

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upvoteby CWuestefeld1 hours ago|
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Scarcity demands some means of rationing out the product. Setting higher prices is one means of doing this, so only those with some means of paying can get it. Another approach is via wait times, where only those who can wait and afford the time penalty can get it. There are other variations, but there's no such thing as a free lunch.
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upvoteby joezydeco46 minutes ago|
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The scarcity comes from waiting to get preapproval from your physician and health insurance. If you are willing to pay out of pocket, there are many private MRI clinics that will scan you to your heart's content, as quickly as you want, as long as the payment clears.

Granted, anything you find in that reading won't be accepted by your physician or insurance company, so it's more of a checkup for you and you alone. And most scans will find something anomalous. We're all asymmetrical and lumpy. so take that as you will.

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upvoteby virissimo2 hours ago|
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> MRIs are actually widely available in most cities at reasonable cost

Typical wait time for an MRI in Canada is 2 months.

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upvoteby thaw135792 hours ago|
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Yes, that is a economic & public health policy problem that really needs to be solved. We can look to Japan as example of what's possible, they have invested in nearly twice the number of scanners per capita of Canada, and they can get same-day MRIs for $50, roughly speaking.
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upvoteby 2 hours ago|
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upvoteby lostlogin2 hours ago|
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> they can get same-day MRIs for $50

I’d like to see a breakdown on how they do that. Staffing alone is a multiple of that.

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upvoteby 11 minutes ago|
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upvoteby thaw135791 hours ago|
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From what I know, seems like a mix of medical price fixing by the gov't, adoption of lower cost hardware, and universal healthcare. There's apparently less bureaucracy, perhaps because there is no need for negotiation at every step of the process?
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upvoteby vixen991 hours ago|
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Romania: for a head MRI on demand - not more than a few days and less than 400 Euros.
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upvoteby kyawzazaw3 hours ago|
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most cities where?
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upvoteby thaw135792 hours ago|
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Here are OECD and WHO reports on regional availability of MRI:

https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025...

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...

Africa, Central & South America are clearly underserved, perhaps a good opportunity for ultrasound and low-field MRI

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upvoteby 2 hours ago|
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