Actually, as a researcher in the field, controlling cost is one of the motivations behind this method.

Do you have any idea how much open brain surgery costs? It's several days in the hospital, plus a team of surgeons, plus an operating room. All in all, from $50,000 to $200,000. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) doesn't need any of that. There are hopes this could almost be an outpatient type of procedure.

One my childhood friends suffered from epilepsy for many years until as a teenager, he had exploratory brain surgery (in 1988) where they removed a cubic centimeter of diseased tissue. He was in the hospital for a week.

Not every new idea in medicine costs more money.

Actually current CT's are designed to use a "cone beam" and measure radiation from as much area as possible at one time. This has allowed the time it takes for a CT scan to go from minutes per slice to tenths of seconds per slice. Unless you had hundreds (or thousands) of pencil beams, the current scanners would take much less time.

I love open content and use MIT OCW and other materials to prepare and teach my courses. But I don't think virtual labs will ever compete with real labs. In reality, your magnetic field measurements are complicated by the NMR coil upstairs and you have to explain why. In reality, data point number 7 does not fit the line. Even with random number generators, virtual labs disconnect measurements from reality and are not a valid substitute.

I've taught physics labs both ways and the students are happier with real labs and the learning outcomes are much better with real labs.

Unfortunately, at most universities, you'd be right, professors do not interact with students and there is no "real" communication. But there is already an alternative. Small colleges (less than 5000 students) with no TA's encourage communication and collaboration between undergraduate students and professors. I'm thrilled to be working at one. By far the best part of my day is office hours, working with individual students to better understand class or the textbook.