AI startup is hoping to replace MRIs with its full-body scanner — uses a shallow pool of water to map the human body. But some doctors aren't so sure

Midjourney built its reputation on AI-generated art. Now, it’s aiming at something considerably more ambitious: disrupting the medical imaging industry.

The company recently unveiled Midjourney Medical — a new division centered on a full-body scanner that uses a shallow pool of water and sonic-wave technology to map the human body in about a minute.

Must Read

• Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one

• Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake — here’s what it is and 3 simple steps to fix it ASAP

• Vanguard’s outlook on U.S. stocks is raising alarm bells for retirees. Here’s why and how to protect yourself

Patients are lowered into the pool and a ring of microscopic squares generates and records ultrasonic waves. That data is then sent to supercomputer clusters and processed into body images, MarketWatch reports (1).

Founder David Holz’s ambitions are enormous: a fleet of 50,000 scanners running one billion scans per month by 2031, beginning with a spa location in San Francisco by the end of 2027.

Why MRI access is a real problem

The pitch lands against a backdrop of ongoing frustration. MRIs are among the most diagnostically useful tools in medicine, but they are expensive, slow and in short supply (1).

Without insurance, an MRI can cost anywhere from $400 to $12,000 depending on things like the body part, scan type and location (2) , with hospital-based scans averaging $2,250 compared to roughly $650 at outpatient centers, according to New Choice Health. Even insured patients routinely face hundreds of dollars in out-of-pocket costs after deductibles and coinsurance (3).

Access is the other half of the problem. According to Tesla MR Institute analysis, approximately 17.4% of MRI technologist positions across the U.S. are currently unfilled — roughly 7,200 open positions (4) — with vacancy rates at or near all-time highs.

Studies in the Journal of the American College of Radiology project the radiologist shortage will persist through 2055 without intervention (5).

And rural communities are especially exposed (6). According to the American Hospital Association (AHA), a large portion of patients served by rural critical access hospitals experience significant transportation barriers when traveling for medical imaging — a challenge it noted at a 25-bed rural Idaho hospital that had been relying on a mobile rented MRI trailer precisely because patients couldn’t easily reach imaging facilities elsewhere (7).

What the technology actually does

The underlying hardware is supplied by medical-device company Butterfly Network, which confirmed that each Midjourney scanner prototype embeds 40 of its proprietary Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules (1), MarketWatch notes.

The software layer relies on full-waveform inversion — a technique widely developed by the petroleum industry to locate underground gas and oil reserves — which converts raw acoustic wave data into three-dimensional images.

A 2020 peer-reviewed study demonstrated that full-waveform inversion can produce detailed brain images from ultrasound data, validating the core scientific premise (8). Until recently, the technique was considered commercially impractical because of the enormous computing power it required — a barrier now falling rapidly as AI supercomputer infrastructure expands (1).

Read More: Millionaires under 43 hold only 25% of their wealth in stocks. Here’s where their money is actually going

What experts are saying and why the caveats matter

The response from medical professionals has been measured.

Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director with Scripps Research Translational Institute (1), told MarketWatch that extending ultrasound technology in this direction is “a good idea” — but said he remains “somewhat skeptical.”

His key reservation: ultrasound cannot penetrate dense bone structures to image brain tissue the way an MRI can, which means describing Midjourney’s scanner as a “full-body” alternative to MRI is misleading. Topol believes Midjourney’s scanner is more accurately compared to a DEXA scan — a tool used to assess body composition, bone density and muscle mass.

Nisha Mehta, a radiologist and founder of the Physician Side Gigs community, was cautiously optimistic in a LinkedIn post (9), but drew a clear line: “I’m not an advocate for deploying party tricks at a spa and using it to guide medical advice or care.”

She added that if the technology can eventually address MRI’s well-documented barriers — cost, claustrophobia, long appointment times and access gaps — “the potential for impact is not insignificant when in the hands of people who understand the science and are trained to interpret images.”

That qualifier is significant. The Midjourney scanner is currently not FDA-approved for medical diagnoses. The company intends to launch it initially for body-composition mapping — closer to the direct-to-consumer wellness market than clinical medicine — while it pursues ongoing FDA discussions.

The financial picture for consumers

For the average American, the key question here is whether any of this eventually translates into cheaper, faster imaging outside a hospital setting.

The direct-to-consumer wellness scanning market has already demonstrated demand. DEXA scans, which Topol sees as the Midjourney device’s closest competitor, are a fraction of traditional MRI pricing (2), at around $75 to $200 per session in the U.S. (10).

If Midjourney’s body-composition scans arrive at competitive price points and prove accessible outside major cities, they could meaningfully expand who gets regular imaging, even if they never become the MRI replacement Holz envisions.

Whether the science gets there is a question the FDA and the peer-review process will ultimately answer.

You May Also Like

• Here are the 7 top habits of ‘quietly wealthy’ Americans. How many do you follow?

• 'Gold still crashing!': Robert Kiyosaki admits he was wrong — but doubles down on his $35K prediction

• The tax breaks in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' expire after 2028 — and experts say most people won't act in time. What to do before the window closes

• I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement. What do I do? Don't panic. Here are 7 ways to catch up fast

Enjoyed this Moneywise story? Click Follow above for more. To get our best content and exclusive interviews first, join 250,000+ readers who subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Article Sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.

MarketWatch (1); BuzzRx (2); Newchoicehealth (3); TeslaMR (4); Hematology Advisor (5); Vestarad (6); American Heart Association (7); Nature (8); LinkedIn (9); Fitcommit Ai (10).

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.