4 ms·

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

by 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
[deleted]

by D_Alex 7y ago

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

[deleted]