Portable MRI and Equitable Access to Imaging: A Framework for Implementation and Sustainable Deployment

MRI is a reference-standard modality for an expanding range of clinical questions, yet it remains among the most unevenly distributed technologies in medicine. Portable low- and ultra-low-field MRI, compact permanent-magnet systems that operate without cryogens or need for in-room radiofrequency shielding, have been proposed as a means of extending imaging to settings where fixed scanners are unavailable or cannot be reached safely. A growing evidence base indicates that these systems can address a defined set of high-value clinical questions, including the detection of intracerebral hemorrhage and large ischemic infarcts, the assessment of hydrocephalus, and the monitoring of critically ill patients at the bedside. This article synthesises the technical basis, clinical applications, and equity implications of portable MRI and argues that the technology’s equity impact depends less on the device than on how it is implemented and financed. Consistent with the inverse-equity hypothesis, an imaging technology introduced without deliberate design tends to reach advantaged populations first, and may transiently widen the disparities it is intended to reduce. Drawing on implementation science, change management, and financial reasoning, this article reframes portable MRI as a socio-technical intervention whose equitable benefit depends on the coordinated design of three domains: (1) device capability, (2) implementation and organizational change, and (3) sustainable financing matched to local context. The Canadian setting, including remote and Indigenous communities, is used to illustrate both the opportunity and the conditions required to realize the benefits of portable MRI. A deployment framework is proposed to support radiology leaders and health systems.