Clinical Viability of AI-enabled 0.5T MRI Scanner to Improve Access

We validate the clinical viability of a 0.5T scanner to reduce cost and improve access to quality MRI using AI based IQ enhancement to compensate for IQ reduction due to lower field and other lower hardware specifications. We obtained data from 65 patients from the re-ramped 0.5T and a commercially available 1.5T MRI system for brain and cervical spine. Radiologists compared image quality between the two and rated the image on the ability to perform diagnosis. We observed that more than 90% of the images were rated to be above diagnostic levels and AI reconstruction significantly improved the image quality.