Low-cost High Performance Low-field MRI

Envisioning the healthcare technology of tomorrow requires one to break from the mainstream and explore alternative approaches to develop accessible, ubiquitous diagnostic tools. In the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), despite considerable improvements in imaging quality and speed, the underlying technology remains remarkably unchanged compared to the first generation scanners that emerged on the market 30 years ago. Undeniably, one of the next revolutions in health care is cost-effectiveness. Using only simple and robust hardware technologies and state-of-the-art acquisition and processing strategies, low-cost scanners could democratize MRI, moving it away from demanding siting requirements and colossal costs, and opening up a wide range of unprecedented new applications. We believe our work will enable the realization of an inexpensive portable MRI system for use in a variety of situations where MRI systems are not traditionally available such as resource-poor environments, emergency responses, and remote regions. At 6.5 mT (more than 450 times lower than clinical MRI scanners), our group has demonstrated (2.5×3.5×8.5) mm imaging resolution in the living human brain using a simple, open-geometry electromagnet, with 3D image acquisition over the entire brain in 6 minutes. Without pre-polarization or cryogenic SQUID detection, we have developed the fastest 3D MRI of the living human brain to date in the very low-field regime.