Number of MRIs in Canada soars in last decade

Canada has four times the number of MRI scanners it had 10 years ago, but still ranks below other industrialized countries in their availability, according to a new report.

As of January 2004, Canada had 151 magnetic resonance imaging scanners, a sharp rise from a decade ago. The number of CT scanner also increased, by 44 per cent over the same period, up to 338 across the country.

The report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information also showed that some parts of the country have more imaging resources than others. Ontario had 52 MRI machines, while P.E.I. had one.

But the report doesn't answer questions about whether the country has too few medical imaging machines to adequately serve the population.

The institute gathers data on the usage of Canada's health services, but its reports don't offer opinions about those services.

An estimated two million Canadians aged 15 and older reported undergoing medical imaging testing in 2003, a 25 per cent increase since 2001.

The report noted that Canada ranked below average for the number of MRI and CT machines per one million people among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Canada had 4.6 MRIs per million people, far below Japan with 35.3 and the U.S. with 19.5. The median for OECD countries was 6.1 MRIs per million people.