5 ms·

$98/scan in Japan. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/interviews/ikegami.html https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundthewo

• mattkrause 7y ago
  The doctor gets $98. The $550/hr price I quoted is for a research scanner where no one is even trying to turn a profit; they just want to pay off the machine and its operating costs. The machines themselves are not magically cheaper in Japan; they're just being paid for through some other route. If the scanner were somehow free (gov't grant?), 98$ seems pretty reasonable for the labor.
  • flemhans 7y ago
    $105 in Romania then, for most body parts. <http://www.hiperdia.ro/servicii-medicale/> http://www.hiperdia.ro/servicii-medicale/>
    • mattkrause 7y ago
      Again, that’s what you pay (near as I can tell), but that’s not what it costs. They’re also “free” (at the point of service) in the UK, but the scanner and helium are not a generous gift from the fey folk, nor does the Queen volunteer as a tech. These things cost money. Any study you do is going to have to cover expenses—-including their share of a temperamental, multimillion dollar machine (or find a way to dip into the same accounts that cover its clinical use).
      • flemhans 7y ago
        It is actually what I paid at the front desk in cash :) Totally anonymous. I visited as a tourist. It is not a subsidized government hospital.
  • D_Alex 7y ago
    A medical grade MRI scanner costs around $1 million, and maintenance costs are circa $100,000/year. With good utilisation, say 3000 hrs/year, the machine costs might be around $70/hr. The $550/hr you are paying may be because you are using a particularly fancy scanner, or because utilisation rate is low, or because the amount is loaded with overheads, or w/e.
    • mattkrause 7y ago
      What does “medical grade” mean? That’s in the ballpark for a 1.5T, but those are fairly old. About $1M per Tesla used to be a decent rule of thumb, but it’s come down a little at the low end. Still, I would be amazed to see a 3T for anything below $2M. As for the $550/hr, it’s probably true that research scanners have lower utilization and higher costs to support all the weird stuff researchers want to do. An outpatient clinic specializing in knees can run much leaner. That said, that rate seems to be pretty standard across universities and I maintain that it's a very reasonable estimate of the cost. For example: * Hopkins $668/hr (3T) or $538 (1.5T) during prime time; cheaper nights and weekend http://www.mri.jhu.edu/div_mri_res/ServCentPolicyFY17.pdf http://www.mri.jhu.edu/div_mri_res/ServCentPolicyFY17.pdf * Yale: $539/hr (3T) https://medicine.yale.edu/mrrc/users/charges.aspx https://medicine.yale.edu/mrrc/users/charges.aspx * Harvard/MGH: $640/hr https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/core https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/core * WUSTL: $710/hr (3T) https://www.mir.wustl.edu/Portals/0/Documents/Uploads/CCIR/FY19%20CCIR%20Price_6.20.18_dw_v4.pdf https://www.mir.wustl.edu/Portals/0/Documents/Uploads/CCIR/F... * McGill: $500/hr (3T) or $500-700/hr (7T) https://mcgill.ca/bic/files/bic/bic-rates-03052018.pdf https://mcgill.ca/bic/files/bic/bic-rates-03052018.pdf Most of these do not include F&A. It’s already coming out of the grants and external users pay a "Dean's Tax" on top of that to cover the missing overhead (which can often double the price).
    • deleted 7y ago
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• petschge 7y ago
  That is just for your neck. So a tiny imaging volume on a cheaper machine. Using that as a price point for full body imageing is disingenuous.