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Five steps to make MRI scanners more affordable to the world

Fifty years since the basis of magnetic resonance imaging was published, MRI scanners remain expensive — and impractical in many countries. Here’s how we are making them smaller and less costly.
By
  1. Andrew Webb

    1. Andrew Webb is a professor of radiology and founding director of the C. J. Gorter MRI Center, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.

  2. Johnes Obungoloch

    1. Johnes Obungoloch is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda.

Peter Nsubuga, Ivan Muhumuza, Johnes Obungoloch, Ivan Etoku, Chris Mugume and Patricia Tusiime.

Johnes Obungoloch (centre) and his team with a magnet used in a low-field MRI scanner. Credit: Wouter Teeuwisse and Tom O'Reilly

In 2014, paediatric neurosurgeon Steven Schiff approached our research team with a challenge: build an easy-to-use, portable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system at a fraction of the cost of a conventional scanner. He needed it to image the brains of children in Uganda with hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in the brain.

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Nature 615, 391-393 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00759-x

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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