|
Midjourney’s Imaging Spa, Radiologists Weigh In, and Canada Relaunch
June 22, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
Together with
|
|
|
|
“Do I think this is new and exciting? Yes. It looks like it’s going to be great for body composition, and I do think there will be some improvement in the future. Is it currently medical-grade diagnostic quality? No, not based on what they showed us.”
|
|
Laura Heacock, MD, on the launch of Midjourney Medical.
|
|
|
Everybody loves a good spa day, but what if you could make it even better with a comprehensive whole-body wellness scan that’s as easy as stepping into a warm pool of water? It’s a thought-provoking idea, and one that grabbed radiology’s attention last week. But just because you can, does that mean you should? Either way, we’ll be following Midjourney Medical closely. – Brian Casey, Managing Editor
|
|
|
|
In one of the more novel business concepts we’ve seen in a while, generative AI algorithm developer Midjourney last week announced a new wellness project that combines whole-body imaging with a spa atmosphere. The company hopes to have the first imaging spa – outfitted with what it calls an “ultrasonic CT scanner” – up and running in 2027.
If you’re not familiar with Midjourney, you’re not alone. The San Francisco company launched in 2022 with one of the first generative AI algorithms able to create images from text prompts.
- Midjourney’s business model is rooted in industries like graphic design and advertising, where its algorithm is employed to create artistic prototypes of concepts that can then be forwarded to human artists for finalization.
Fast forward to last week’s announcement. Acknowledging that the idea was “a little weird and a little crazy,” the company said its Midjourney Medical business would combine the healthcare and spa industries in a concept that could radically expand the approach to whole-body screening and longevity imaging.
- It starts with a technology that’s not necessarily new to medical imaging – ultrasound tomography in a water bath (water is an excellent conductor of sound waves). But Midjourney Medical turns the water bath into a gigantic, warm pool into which customers will be lowered on a gently descending elevator.
On the way down, spa-goers will pass through an array of half a million tiny ultrasound transducers that produce “terabytes of data each second” that are then sent to powerful computers for processing with AI.
- Midjourney claims AI will be able to recognize changes in density or stiffness and will create a 3D map of the body “that looks a lot like today’s MRIs but at nearly a hundred times the speed.”
But wait, there’s more. Stating that it wants to create an experience that isn’t just about health “but is just a nice place to go,” Midjourney said the scanners will be built around spas with hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, and “cozy rooms with pools of golden light.”
- The first Midjourney spa is scheduled to open in San Francisco toward the end of 2027, with additional locations planned in 2028.
The Takeaway
The radiology world is littered with the remains of startup companies that thought they could reinvent the discipline with new technologies radically different from modalities that are already available. Is Midjourney Medical one of them? Or will the firm’s ambitious concept of an imaging spa revolutionize whole-body screening? Only time will tell.
|
|
KailoFlow Replaces the Patchwork
KailoFlow from Kailo Medical gives you one platform from digital patient intake to final structured report, with automated measurement transfer, built-in TI-RADS and BI-RADS calculations, and pre-drafted reporting across any device, any site.
|
|
Redefining Breast Imaging in the Enterprise Era
As breast imaging grows more complex, radiology teams need more than siloed tools. Watch this on-demand webinar hosted by AGFA HealthCare about transforming breast imaging workflows in the enterprise imaging era.
|
|
Advanced Medical Imaging in Small-Town Iowa
Clarinda Regional Health Center has been a cornerstone of care in Clarinda, Iowa, since opening its doors in 1939. Learn how CRHC partnered with United Imaging to bring advanced imaging capabilities directly to its patients.
|
|
- Radiologists Weigh In on Midjourney Medical: Midjourney Medical’s announcement prompted a wave of comments by radiologists, most of them intrigued but skeptical. Francis Deng, MD, called it a “surprising pivot” for a company that doesn’t have investors. Laura Heacock, MD, noted that the technology used – ultrasound tomography – isn’t necessarily new, and that the images Midjourney has shown so far are not diagnostic quality. And finally, Joseph Janizek, MD, PhD, said the Midjourney images “look like absolute dogwater.”
- Butterfly Reveals Midjourney Partnership: It turns out that Midjourney isn’t working alone on its Midjourney Medical imaging spa concept. Point-of-care ultrasound company Butterfly Network revealed that it’s been supplying ultrasound technology to Midjourney under a licensing agreement, in particular 40 Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules. Details of the relationship were revealed in a November 2025 SEC filing that Butterfly made, which indicates that Midjourney will pay Butterfly up to $74M over five years.
- Canada Relaunches Preventive Health Panel: The Canadian government launched a new panel on preventive health to replace a controversial group that refused to lower the mammography screening age to women in their 40s. The National Advisory Committee on Preventive Health Services replaces the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, which was disbanded in 2024 after it declined to follow the USPSTF’s lead in lowering the age to 40. The new group will develop guidelines for preventive health services like cancer screening.
- DeepHealth Adds BAC to Mammo AI: DeepHealth received FDA clearance to market breast arterial calcification assessment with its ProFound mammography AI software, which the company accessed through its acquisition of iCAD and is now rebranding as Mammo Dx. BAC can indicate future risk of cardiovascular disease, and can be calculated through AI analysis of screening mammograms. DeepHealth also received clearance for incorporating prior images into Mammo Dx, and the company is making both new applications available in its Breast Suite package of solutions. It’s the second-ever BAC clearance after cmAngio from CureMetrix.
- More Relaxed Policy for MRI Contrast: The switch to macrocyclic MRI contrast agents has largely eliminated nephrogenic systemic fibrosis – a debilitating and occasionally fatal disease – in patients with poor kidney function. Does that mean MRI providers can relax their vigilance toward MRI contrast? A new study in Academic Radiology suggests they can, finding that among 2.9k patients with acute or chronic renal failure, there were no cases of NSF following the adoption of a new hospital policy allowing the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents.
- Opportunistic Screening: How to Do It: AI algorithms are making it possible to perform opportunistic screening, but how do you actually set up a program in the real world – especially if you’re not a large academic center? Authors from NYU Langone Health offer a useful primer in AJR, touching on topics ranging from finding the right balance between radiologist oversight and maintaining workflow efficiency to the best location for embedding imaging IT tools (they suggest directly in the PACS interface).
- Enlitic Partners with CARPL: Enlitic and CARPL inked a partnership designed to make it easier for radiology sites to use imaging data to evaluate AI algorithms. Enlitic’s Ensight data standardization solution can be used within the CARPL platform for AI validation, eliminating challenges created by data that might be fragmented across healthcare systems. The partnership should enable CARPL customers to more quickly move from AI exploration to real-world clinical use.
- New Dataset for Training AI for Chest CT: A new publicly available dataset for training AI algorithms for chest CT is described in a new paper in NEJM AI. Called ReXGroundingCT, the dataset includes 3.1k noncontrast chest CT scans that have been linked to free-text descriptions from radiology reports, enabling precise 3D localization of clinical findings. In all, the dataset encompasses 8k segmented clinical findings that represent a range of pulmonary and pleural abnormalities, and should support algorithm development for both image analysis and report generation.
- General-Purpose Gen AI Strikes Back: Developers of generative AI algorithms for dedicated radiology applications like to say their solutions compare favorably to general-purpose large language models, but it may be too soon to count general-purpose AI out. In a new study in Nature Medicine, researchers found that LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini performed better than specialized medical models for tasks like medical knowledge, clinician alignment, and real physician queries. Get the rest of the story on our Digital Health Wire sister site.
- Quibim Gets Canadian Approval: Quibim received a medical device license from Health Canada for its QP-Prostate AI-powered solution for analyzing prostate MRI scans. The decision clears QP-Prostate v2.4 for use across Canada, where prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men. Quibim is already marketing QP-Prostate in the U.S., European Union, U.K., and Australia, in addition to other international markets.
- Coreline Allies with Mint Medical: Coreline Soft partnered with Mint Medical to integrate its AVIEW AI imaging solution into Mint’s mint Lesion platform for structured reporting and imaging data management. The partnership focuses initially on Germany, which launched a national CT lung cancer screening program in April, but is designed to scale into international markets. The partnership demonstrates the growing role of AI and imaging IT to help providers address the challenges of CT lung screening, such as nodule detection and follow-up.
- Canon’s New Ultrasound Scanner: Canon Medical debuted a new ultrasound scanner at the Euroson 2026 conference earlier this month. Called Aplio me X, the system is a lightweight cart-based scanner that includes AI-powered workflows thanks to Canon’s Altivity AI platform. Canon is also touting Aplio me X’s portability, workflow support, and energy efficiency, with four hours of battery life. The system is being launched first in Europe.
|
|
The Economics of AI-Assisted Heart Failure Diagnosis
An AI-assisted diagnostic pathway for diagnosing heart failure saved $1.4k per patient – without compromising diagnostic accuracy. Read the white paper from Us2.ai.
|
|
Accelerate Enterprise Imaging in the Cloud
It’s more than a traditional VNA. Discover how Merge Imaging Suite VNA v26.0 provides robust vendor-neutral image archiving with the scalability and security of Microsoft Azure.
|
|
Reimbursement for AI-Powered CAC Scoring
Medicare reimbursement for AI-powered coronary artery calcium scoring is now available with code G0680. Find out how it can impact your practice – and your patients – in this video interview with Riverain Technologies.
|
|
- Radiology Without Limits: Watch this video from Visage Imaging to learn how their Visage 7 solution enables you to achieve radiology without limits – performance, reliability, and innovation.
- Don’t Leave Your Patients in the Dark: Top health systems like Duke Health and Lumexa Imaging are using patient-friendly radiology reports from Scanslated to boost patient engagement and satisfaction. Discover how Scanslated can work for you today.
- Providing the Best CT for Patients – with Confidence: Nashville General Hospital is an essential hospital, but they are determined to invest in CT technology that enables them to compete with larger facilities. Learn how they turned to Fujifilm’s Scenaria View CT scanner to accomplish both goals.
- Increase Radiologist Productivity in DEXA Reporting: Manually dictating DEXA measurements into structured reports is time-consuming and creates unnecessary workload for radiologists. In this case study, discover how Tower Saint John’s Imaging used Altamont Software’s Passport SR to eliminate manual dictation of DEXA measurements.
- Can You Meet Conditional MRI Requirements? How confident are you that your MR practice can meet the MR Conditional requirements? Philips developed ScanWise Implant to simplify scanning patients with MR Conditional implants. Learn more on this page.
- Adding AI Automation to Radiology Reporting: Reporting Pro from DeepHealth is a next-generation AI-powered solution designed to transform the way radiologists generate clinical reports and findings. Discover how it can transform your practice.
- Reimagining Cloud-Native Cardiology Workflow: Find out how Intelerad’s next-generation cloud-based InteleHeart solution delivers an all-in-one cardiology platform that unifies viewing, reporting, analytics, and workflow orchestration.
- Building a Life and Career in Radiology: What does it take to build a meaningful career in radiology? Erin Gomez, MD, talks about her unconventional path into medicine in the latest episode of Medality’s The Joys of Radiology with host Gautam Agarwal, MD.
- Therapy + Diagnostics = Renewed Hope: Theranostics is experiencing an exponential and global expansion as radioligand therapies give hope when other strategies have failed. Learn more about theranostics on this page from GE HealthCare.
- One Viewer. Enterprise-Wide Access: eUnity from Mach7 Technologies delivers fast, diagnostic-quality image access across radiology, cardiology, and enterprise imaging environments.
- Tackling Radiology’s Capacity Issue: Healthcare providers are under pressure from rising costs, care delays, and growing cybersecurity risks. Watch this video to discover how Mosaic Clinical Technologies delivers a future-ready imaging solution that improves continuity of care and accelerates detection for faster, more appropriate interventions.
- The Modern Way to Send and Receive Medical Images: Medicom Connect enables you to automate clinical image exchange across your healthcare ecosystem with workflows that automatically find, retrieve, and deliver images directly to the point of care, improving access and care coordination. Learn more about Medicom’s solutions today.
- A Better Reporting Experience Matters: Reporting systems shape workflow, concentration and efficiency every day. Modern infrastructure should help radiologists move faster — not introduce more clicks and complexity. Experience Rad AI’s reporting built around radiologists. Book a demo.
- Radiology Automation Simplified: CARPL is an enterprise-grade radiology AI validation and deployment platform with 250+ AI applications across 85+ AI vendors that empowers healthcare providers to access, assess, and securely integrate imaging AI in their practice. Book a demo today.
- Leadership in Life Sciences: Quibim is committed to accelerating its development within the life sciences sector and strengthening collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies. Learn about recent leadership developments that are moving the company forward.
- The World’s Happiest Customers – 13 Straight Years: Sectra continues to top the charts when it comes to customer satisfaction. The company recently won seven Best in KLAS awards, including the 13th straight for its Sectra PACS enterprise imaging solution. Find out why on this page.
- Intelligent Imaging in Radiography: As a technologist, you face tight schedules, complex exams, and the need for consistent quality. Check out this article from Siemens Healthineers to learn more about their intelligent imaging solutions and see what experienced colleagues have to say about using them.
- A Breakthrough in Imaging Data Standardization: Enlitic’s Ensight 2.2 is a breakthrough in imaging data standardization that gives health systems a clearer, more detailed understanding of imaging data, accelerating the path from implementation to impact. Find out what it can do for you today.
|
|
|
|
|
