Future cost‐effective MRI will be at high field

The most cost effective MR imaging system is the one that provides the highest quality images (allowing the earliest possible diagnosis), the largest number of applications (allowing bundling of services and one-stop shopping for consumers), and the highest throughput (should it become necessary to scan a large number of patients in a capitated world). When all other parameters are normalized (eg, the skill and training of the radiologist and technologist as well as the RF, computer, and gradient subsystems), high field provides faster, higher resolution, thinner slice, and higher contrast MR images than low field. For these reasons, high field MRI will remain more cost effective than its lower field counterparts in the future.