There are a number of machines that don&#x27;t use superconducting magnets and hence don&#x27;t have such stringent cooling needs. These machines typically need these sort of cooling setups to support higher fields but imaging is still possible at low field. Some years ago, and I&#x27;m by no means up to date with this, there was a group working on imaging using the earth&#x27;s magnetic field as the main field [1]. While this is the extreme MRI has been functional longer than superconducting magnets have been feasible.<p>On the flip side of this things like compressed sensing and MRI fingerprinting [2] reduce further the need for a traditional &#x27;full&#x27; scan. We are still some way off seeing these sorts of things in clinical MRI but that may be more attributable to the pace at which companies like GE and Phillips move in this space. That and the sheer cost of R&amp;D.<p>Overall it is a pretty exciting time to be in MRI, despite the outside view being that it has changed very little in recent decades.<p>disclosure: PhD candidate in electrical engineering, focused on MRI<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;16828566" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;16828566</a> 
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC4376817&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC4376817&#x2F;</a>