Re:The madness of reduced medical diagnostics
by JumpCrisscross on Friday May 20, 2022 @05:27PM
(#31452728)
> this expense was inherent to the machine and had little to do with cost of related labor
The machines are expensive. They also vary in strength, with scanners in e.g. the Philippines and Malaysia being of considerably lower strength than is common in America [1]. (I couldn't find data for India. There are certainly no 7T scanners there; I believe most are 1.5T and below. In New York, it was a 3T.)
Between that, which might be a 2 or 3x differential between a low and high field strength scanner, and the cost differential of "highly-trained and well-paid technicians [needed] to maintain and operate" [2], 4 to 5x seems explicable.
[1] https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/6700/1/IL9.pdf
> A 4 to 5x cost differential from India to New York City seems explicable.
Then please explain it, because you seemed to be saying that this expense was inherent to the machine and had little to do with cost of related labor. If that was the case, one wouldn't expect an MRI in India to cost 1/5th as much.
I also doubt it would be any less expensive here in south central Wisconsin than it is in New York City.