I'm a cardiologist. Something just happened today that I genuinely did not see coming — and it could change the future of preventive medicine more than anything I've written about on this platform.
Midjourney — the AI company that became famous for generating images from text prompts — just announced a medical hardware division and unveiled a working prototype of a full-body scanner unlike anything that's ever existed.
It's called the Midjourney Scanner. And it works like this.
You step into a shallow pool of water. You stand on a platform that slowly descends — about two inches per second — through a ring containing roughly half a million tiny ultrasonic transducers, each the size of a grain of sand. Every one of them acts as both a speaker and a microphone, sending ultrasonic waves through your body from every angle and recording what comes back.
60 seconds later, you step out. The scan is done.
No radiation. No magnets. No claustrophobia. No IV contrast. Just sound, water, and an almost incomprehensible amount of computing power — roughly 2 petaflops processing 17 gigabytes per second of raw acoustic data — reconstructing a 3D map of your entire internal anatomy down to half a millimeter resolution.
Organs. Tissues. Blood vessels. Bones. Muscle. Fat distribution. All segmented by AI in real time.
As a cardiologist who has spent months writing about how the standard screening playbook misses the majority of future heart attacks — this is the technology I've been waiting for without knowing it existed.
Here's why this matters for the future of your heart.
Right now, getting a detailed look inside your cardiovascular system requires either a CT scan (radiation), an MRI (magnets, claustrophobia, 45-60 minutes, $1,000+), or a coronary CT angiogram (radiation, IV contrast, limited availability). These are powerful tools. I order them regularly and they save lives.
But they're reactive. You get them when something is already suspected. They're expensive. They're uncomfortable. And for most people, they happen once — maybe twice — in a lifetime.
Imagine instead: a 60-second scan with no radiation that you could repeat monthly or quarterly. Tracking cardiac structure over time. Watching body composition shift. Detecting changes in organ size, fluid distribution, or vascular architecture before symptoms ever develop. Building a longitudinal dataset of YOUR body that AI can analyze for patterns no single snapshot would reveal.
That's what Midjourney is building toward.
The company plans 50,000 scanners worldwide over six years, with capacity for a billion scans per month. The first location — the "Midjourney Spa" in San Francisco — opens at the end of 2027 with 10 scanners alongside saunas, cold plunges, and a gym. The scan costs a few dollars. The experience is designed to feel like wellness, not medicine.
The technology is built on Butterfly Network's ultrasound-on-chip platform — 40 modules per scanner — combined with Midjourney's own AI segmentation and reconstruction stack. David Holz, the founder, claims the system aims for image quality comparable to MRI in many aspects but at nearly 100x the speed with zero radiation.
Now the caveats — because I'm a physician and the caveats matter enormously.
This is a Gen 1 prototype. About a dozen people have been scanned so far. Current scan time is actually closer to 20 minutes, not 60 seconds — the system is bottlenecked by bandwidth and reconstruction algorithms. The 60-second target is aspirational for future hardware generations.
It is not FDA-cleared for diagnostic use. Midjourney is starting with body composition maps — a category below diagnostic imaging in the regulatory hierarchy. The path from "beautiful 3D body scans" to "clinically validated diagnostic tool that your cardiologist can act on" runs through years of clinical trials, comparative studies against MRI and CT gold standards, and FDA review.
No independent clinical validation has been published. The imaging claims come from Midjourney's own demonstrations. Comparative data against established modalities does not yet exist.
And the privacy implications of full-body internal scans at planetary scale — a billion scans per month — is a conversation that hasn't even started yet.
So I want to be precise. This is not ready for clinical medicine today. It may not be ready for years. Many ambitious medical hardware projects have failed in the gap between prototype and product.
But.
The fact that a working prototype exists — producing real segmented 3D anatomy from sound waves and compute alone — means the physics works. The engineering works. The question is no longer "is this possible" but "how fast can it be validated and scaled."
And if it is validated — if the resolution holds up against MRI, if the AI segmentation proves reliable, if the regulatory path clears — then what we're looking at is the most significant new imaging modality in 50 years.
For my entire career, preventive cardiology has been limited by the fact that seeing inside the body is expensive, slow, uncomfortable, and infrequent. We catch disease late because we image rarely. We image rarely because imaging is hard.
A 60-second, no-radiation, spa-based full-body scan that costs a few dollars would demolish every one of those barriers.
I've written about AI detecting inflamed arteries. About gene editing curing cholesterol. About GLP-1 drugs rewriting metabolic medicine. About cellular reprogramming reversing aging.
This is the missing piece: the ability to see inside every human body, routinely, safely, and affordably — so all of those interventions can be deployed before the disease arrives instead of after.
The company that taught AI to generate images from imagination just built a machine that generates images from the human body.
The future of medicine showed up today from the last place anyone expected.
Sepsis kills more people in American hospitals than heart attacks. 350,000 deaths a year, and the reason is brutally simple: the early warning signs are almost invisible.
A slightly elevated heart rate. A small temperature shift. A lab value drifting in the wrong direction. Each one looks like noise on a busy ward. By the time the pattern is obvious to a human, the patient is hours into a cascade toward organ failure, and every hour of delayed antibiotics raises mortality.
Tampa General built a system on Palantir's Foundry that watches roughly 1,000 inpatients continuously. Vitals, labs, medication records, clinician notes, all scanned in real time for the pattern no single nurse can see across 12 beds at 3am. When risk crosses a threshold, a rapid response team gets paged. Humans still make every treatment decision. The software just compresses detection from hours to minutes.
The results since 2022: overall sepsis mortality cut in half, 48-hour deaths down 68%, length of stay down 30%, roughly 900 lives saved. At one hospital.
Now run the national math. There are about 6,100 hospitals in the US. If even the 500 largest matched these numbers, you'd be looking at tens of thousands of lives a year from a single use case. The treatment for sepsis hasn't changed. Antibiotics and fluids, same as decades ago. The entire gain comes from starting them earlier.
The hardest problem in medicine was never the cure. It was noticing in time.
@alx@elonmusk Similar experience, estimate during checkout was 3-4 weeks, then after purchase got an update next day that it would be ready in 3 days. Was not expecting quick turnaround based on original messaging which caused an unpleasant scramble to accept delivery.
Druckenmiller on why you should never invest in the present.
"It doesn't matter what a company's earning, what they have earned - you have to visualise the situation 18 months from now - that's where the price will be".
The engineering and engineers that built the promethean torch to the stars are hero’s of humanity.
SpaceX is the most consequential company quite possibly ever built in recorded history.
We stand so close to it in time, we can’t see how this lifts up all in the human family.
The Annual Baron Investment Conference highlights presentations from executives of companies in which we invest, offering valuable insights directly from industry leaders. This year we are thrilled to welcome @Gwynne_Shotwell, President and COO of @SpaceX to #BaronConference24. 🚀
As President and COO of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell has played a pivotal role in driving the company's growth and innovation. Under her leadership, SpaceX has achieved remarkable milestones, including launching the Falcon vehicle family over 270 times, which includes 24 astronaut flights, and building out Starlink, the largest global satellite internet service provider available in over 100 countries and territories.
Gwynne's expertise and vision have contributed significantly to SpaceX's position as a leading aerospace company.
Disclosures:
𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘐𝘯𝘤., 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 1-800-99-𝘉𝘈𝘙𝘖𝘕 𝘰𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱.𝘤𝘰𝘮. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.
𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀: All investments are subject to risk and may lose value.
𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟬, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀: 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – Baron Asset Fund (2.8%), Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (1.0%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (8.9%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (6.5%), Baron Opportunity Fund (2.7%), Baron Partners Fund (11.1%*)
*% of Long Positions
𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗲𝘀. 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀.
At this year’s conference it's not just humans attending... Say hello to @Tesla_Optimus the humanoid robot who has joined us for #BaronConference24. 🤖
𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘐𝘯𝘤., 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 1-800-99-𝘉𝘈𝘙𝘖𝘕 𝘰𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱.𝘤𝘰𝘮. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.
𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀: All investments are subject to risk and may lose value.
𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟬, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰, 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀: 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝗹𝗮, 𝗜𝗻𝗰. – Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (3.3%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (9.8%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (1%), Baron Opportunity Fund (4.5%), Baron Partners Fund (33.4%*), Baron Technology Fund (3.3%).
*% of Long Positions.
𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸.
BAMCO, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Baron Capital, Inc. is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA).
America is an economic coiled spring. We should be growing at least 4% annually and ideally 6-8%+. Growth has been brutally suppressed since before I was born. But there is so much to build. And the payoff for all Americans will be incredible. 🇺🇸
@Anc_Aesthetics@elonmusk Majority of my feed is now video. Understand why the algorithm would favor this to maximize time spent on a post, but it's come at a cost of written content from subject matter experts who don't post videos.