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"The lower-power machine was much cheaper to manufacture and operate, more comfortable and less noisy for patients, and the final images after computational processing were as clear and detailed as those obtained by the high-power devices currently used in the clinical setting."

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A cardboard box containing preprinted scan results would also be even cheaper and faster.

But some people actually like to have something that works.

300-1800W power draw seems impressive! It looks like standard machines are using something on the order of 25kW while scanning, which certainly sounds prohibitive for less developed infrastructure.

Also, they need to keep vats of liquid helium around.

Difficult stuff to store. I knew they needed cold gas, but liquid helium is crazy.

There was some buzz years ago about using liquid nitrogen instead but I don’t know if it made it into widespread production

https://www.wired.com/story/mri-magnet-cooling/

Sounds like that's more about using a cryocooler to minimize the helium used-- but presumably that requires keeping the coils in a particularly hard vacuum to adequately insulate them.

There is some research towards operating at liquid hydrogen temperatures -- but hydrogen has its own logistical challenges.

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