Diffusion of an innovation: adoption of MRI.

"Diffusion of Innovation" is a marketing theory that predicts the pattern of adoption of new products, with specific characteristics of the product determining the rate of adoption. This article attempts to determine whether MRI fits the predicted pattern. A computer Medline search to assess the number of articles printed on MRI shows that MRI is being adopted more slowly than CT, but like CT, MRI is following the pattern predicted by the Diffusion Theory.