Why is it important?
High magnetic fields that HTS magnets create provide can make some of high energy particle healthcare instruments considerably smaller and hence decrease cost. Examples include accelerators and cyclotrons used for ion cancer therapy and production of medical isotopes. Another perspective segment enabled by HTS is ultra-high field MRI as well as helium-free MRI. Several prototypes have been already demonstrated and MgB2-based open MRI machine has entered commercialization stage.
What's holding us back?
Current status quo is that low temperature superconductors are widely used to make healthcare tools. As this is a mature industry on itself, high temperature superconductors need to outperform the performance of existing options significantly to be used. On the other hand there’s a need to reduce power consumption of medical devices as well as reduce their reliance on usage of rare helium gas and this might facilitate interest to HTS options.