[el_don_almighty]

This problem has already been solved by the MRI machines at your local airport. Cost and performance are not the issues. For $25 your luggage gets an MRI that automatically differentiates between organic molecules in seconds. How easily could this be adapted for free annual screenings at the mall?

But that's not the objective, and so your research is doomed

The medical equipment industry will not suffer fools who don't understand 'regulatory capture' and 'rent seeking.'

Those hospital machines are expensive and rare for reasons that have very little to do with cost or performance