CT and MRI Examination Volumes in Canada: National Performance Insights

Key Messages

What Is the Issue?

• Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) received a request related to the average annual number of CT and MRI examinations performed per site and per unit across the country.
• CT and MRI use in Canada has nearly doubled since 2007, yet there is limited recent publicly available information at the national and jurisdictional levels that reports examination volumes by geographic setting (urban, rural, and remote) or facility type (academic versus community).
• Detailed data can support informed resource planning, efficient workload management, and equitable service delivery — and CDA-AMC is uniquely positioned to fill this gap by collecting and analyzing national imaging data across geographic settings and facility types.

What Did We Do?

• CDA-AMC leveraged data from the 2022–2023 Canadian Medical Imaging Inventory National Survey, including site-level and unit-level examination volumes.
• In total, 178 of 394 CT sites and 115 of 239 MRI sites provided sufficient data to estimate average annual examination volumes per site and per unit.

What Did We Find?

• Nationally, CT sites operated an average of 1.40 units and performed 16,350 annual examinations per site (12,900 examinations performed per unit), while MRI sites averaged 1.49 units with 9,033 annual examinations performed per site (5,850 examinations performed per unit).
• Urban facilities had higher capacity and annual examination volumes, with urban CT sites averaging 1.69 units and 23,036 examinations performed per site, and urban MRI sites averaging 1.64 units and 10,501 annual examinations performed per site.
• Rural and remote sites had fewer units and lower examination volumes: rural CT sites averaged 1.04 units with 8,303 examinations performed; remote CT sites averaged 1 unit with 5,999 examinations performed; rural MRI sites averaged 1 unit with 4,522 examinations performed; and remote MRI sites averaged 1 unit with 3,198 examinations performed.
• Academic sites operated more units and performed significantly more examinations than community sites. Academic CT sites averaged 2.14 units and 29,024 annual examinations performed per site, compared to 1.21 units and 13,024 annual examinations performed at community sites. Academic MRI sites averaged 2 units and 12,500 annual examinations performed, versus 1.23 units and 7,323 annual examinations performed for community sites.

What Does This Mean?

• Understanding the differences across urban, rural, remote, academic, and community settings can inform appropriate distribution of imaging resources.
• These findings may help decision-makers understand site-level workloads and where additional scanners or staffing would be most beneficial.
• Highlighting sites with higher annual scan volumes can guide efforts to support technologist capacity through targeted recruitment, training, or optimized scheduling.