MagnetaMR wants to bring MRI to you

Picture this: You're in Acheson, Bon Accord, or Calahoo, and you need magnetic resonance imaging — commonly known as an MRI scan. You're not feeling your best, and you need to drive to the city to access this care. You also have to wait for an appointment. Vexing, right? Now imagine the scanner could come to you and — bonus points — it's less imposing than a conventional system. That solution is what MagnetaMR is working on, with recent milestones that show promise.

MagnetaMR is developing a portable, AI-informed, low-field MRI device that could cost as little as 10% of the current price of $1.5 million to $3 million for conventional, fixed-place MRI, CityNews Edmonton reported. In 2025, the company received a $100,000 grant from the Alberta Cancer Foundation to further the mission as providers look to remote or transportable health solutions for rural care; that was less than a year after MagnetaMR's incorporation. It then hired Shawn Fraser, who has 25 years of experience in health, as its executive director of business development and strategy. Co-founder and CEO Aaron Purchase has studied and worked in MRI technology at Harvard Medical School and the University of Alberta, where he worked on compact MRI technology intended for the International Space Station, fellow co-founder Heather Purchase told Taproot in an email.

The Alberta government introduced paid, self-referred medical imaging in July, leading to criticism that it will help the wealthy jump the queue while worsening waits for publicly funded scans. MagnetaMR's approach is to make the technology itself more accessible at a time when waits can be more than two years, the company wrote. Its goal is not to make existing tech obsolete, unlike some other local medical-device makers. "We see our system as complementary to conventional MRI rather than a replacement for it," Heather Purchase said. "We understand the potential trickle-down impacts of a delayed MRI, and our goal is to begin to fill those gaps with another option." The solution is still at the prototype stage, however, and likely two to three years away from commercialization.