> The US has 40 MRI machines per million. The UK has 6.
Funny story - these days most DI (diagnostic imaging) machines (CT, fMRI, PET) are owned by doctors or consortiums of doctors.
They are money printing machines.
Doctors, and manufacturers know this. Manufacturers will find you doctors you can partner up with to buy DI assets, and get set up. You can pay off a CT machine in a couple of months, even high end fMRI in under a year. The manufacturer will finance. They'll even help you write CON applications (Certificate of Need, a nice little thing that hospitals lobbied for to reduce competition - if a new hospital wants to open up in an area it has to demonstrate that the existing community healthcare needs are being underserved. And the existing hospital gets input into the process). A nice little imaging production line.
Interestingly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, doctors who own an interest in imaging equipment tend to refer their patients to it at a rate approaching 2 standard deviations higher (comparing specialties like-for-like).
Funny story - these days most DI (diagnostic imaging) machines (CT, fMRI, PET) are owned by doctors or consortiums of doctors.
They are money printing machines.
Doctors, and manufacturers know this. Manufacturers will find you doctors you can partner up with to buy DI assets, and get set up. You can pay off a CT machine in a couple of months, even high end fMRI in under a year. The manufacturer will finance. They'll even help you write CON applications (Certificate of Need, a nice little thing that hospitals lobbied for to reduce competition - if a new hospital wants to open up in an area it has to demonstrate that the existing community healthcare needs are being underserved. And the existing hospital gets input into the process). A nice little imaging production line.
Interestingly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, doctors who own an interest in imaging equipment tend to refer their patients to it at a rate approaching 2 standard deviations higher (comparing specialties like-for-like).