Posts Tagged ‘accreditation’
Monday, December 26th, 2011
Ambivalence is rampant with respect to MRI safety. “It hasn’t happened to us (so therefore the risk is just theoretical)”, or “MRI is the safe modality”, or “our last license or accreditation surveyor didn’t say anything, so we must be good.” In large part, I understand this let-sleeping-dogs-lie attitude (I don’t agree with it, but I can understand where it comes from). What I can’t abide, however, is hypocrisy with regard to MRI safety as typified by one entity’s ‘we’re the greatest thing for MRI safety since sliced bread’ PR.
Yes, I’m talking about the ACR…
(more…)
Tags: accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, diagnostic, gold seal, image quality, imaging, magnetic resonance, MRI, phantom, press release, promotion, radiology, safe practices, safety, standard of care, standards
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Those who know me know that I’m an upbeat person. Not the spring-out-of-be-fifteen-minutes-before-the-alarm-”so-happy-to-greet-the-morning” type of upbeat, but more of an indefatigable cautious-optimism. Yes, there are bad days… days when I’d just prefer to pull the covers over my head to wait to see if next week Thursday offers enough to coax me out of bed. But I’m of the firm belief that – on those days – you have to drag your sorry butt out of bed and put one foot in front of the other, if for no other reason than you might forget how if you skip a day. Someday, no matter how distant or unlikely, you will meet your goal.
Guess what? Today is one of my somedays! (more…)
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, annual meeting, FDA, injury, Joint Commission, license, magnetic resonance, MRI, regulation, requirement, safety, standard, workshop
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Ironically, those two words – so similar on the surface – often turn out to be antonyms. Today I’m going to attempt to provide you with some transparency relative to a recent disappearance here on this site.
Want To Learn About What Disappeared, And Why?
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, ambulatory, American College of Radiology, fatality, hospital, JCAHO, JCR, Joint Commission, MRI, safety, TJC
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
“Peachy Keen!”
One can only presume that this is the commentary that US States and radiology accreditation agencies have to offer on the contemporary state of MRI safety. After all, there’s been nothing more than navel-gazing when it comes to measurable changes in standards for MRI providers. Let’s break it down…
Click to Read About the ACR and MRI Safety Standards…
Tags: accidents, accreditation, ACR, adverse event, American College of Radiology, CMS, FDA, imaging, Medicaid, medical, Medicare, MIPPA, MR, MRI, quality, radiation, radiology, safety
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
I’m not big on New Years’ resolutions. In fact, I’ve previously resolved to not resolve… but today I’m breaking that vow (or would that be a ‘disavow’?). This year there are just too many things precariously poised — that could fall our way or not — that I can’t help but to resolve to rededicate myself to making substantive changes to industry standards and practices for MR safety, and here’s how I’m going to do it…
Click To Learn How…
Tags: 2011, accident, accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, care, Center for Medicare, CMS, death, fatality, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, injury, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, MRI, New Year, practice, resolution, risk, safety, standard, TJC
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
This past weekend I was invited to present the findings of a study I did with my friend and colleague, Emanuel Kanal. Among his many accolades and credentials, Manny Kanal is the Chair of the ACR MR Safety Committee, a fellow of the ACR and ISMRM, and a neuroradiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The study had a two-part mission, first to review and categorize 18 months of the FDA’s MRI accident data, and second to compare each of these adverse events against existing best-practice standards for MRI safety. The results of the analysis were both stunning, and disheartening…
Click To Read More About The Meeting And The Results…
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, adverse event, American College of Radiology, conference, FDA, IAC, imaging, magnetic, meeting, MRI, presentation, quality, radiology, regulation, resonance, The Joint Commission, TJC, video
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
This, in essence, is the entirety of point-of-care safety standards for MRI.
“Hey, you, MR technologist! Make sure you know what you’re supposed to know to keep people safe around MRI.“
Make no mistake, as someone who spent a decade in college (which included a Masters degree and about half of a 2nd Bachelors), I’m a huge fan of education. What I’m adamantly opposed to – when it comes to MRI safety – is education without any standards or benchmarks, which is precisely where we find ourselves today.
Click To Read What Tobias Thinks Is Wrong With MRI Safety Training…
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, best practice, CMS, education, FDA, IAC, ICAMRL, injury, JCAHO, license, magnetic, MAUDE, MRI, practice, radiology, resonance, safety, standard, Technologist, The Joint Commission, TJC, training
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 28th, 2010
IT’S WORSE!
That’s right, the FDA has updated it’s MRI accident figures available online through the MAUDE database. We were alarmed and astonished when we thought that the rate of increases in MRI accidents was only 270% (from 2004 to 2008). Turns out that the FDA must have found additional accident reports that were in a stack of junk-mail, or got lost between the sofa cushions, which means that the rate if adverse events went up, significantly, in 2008 from the prior calculation.
Click Here To Learn How Much Worse MRI Accident Rates Really Are…
Tags: accident, accreditation, adverse, data, death, event, FDA, imaging, increase, injury, license, magnetic, MAUDE, MRI, patient, radiology, rate, report, resonance, safety, Technologist
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Just a very brief note to let you know that the video of my presentation from the April MRI Safety Workshop at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City is now available for online viewing.
If you’d like to watch it, it’s in 3 parts. The first of 3 is available here (requires QuickTime viewer).
Tobias Gilk, President & MRI Safety Director
Mednovus, Inc.
Tobias.Gilk@Mednovus.com
www.MEDNOVUS.com
Click here for Tobias’ Twitter Profile
Tags: accreditation, imaging, injury, magnetic, magnetism, MRI, radiation, radiology, regulation, resonance, safety
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Here we sit, on the cusp of mandatory accreditation for ‘Advanced Imaging’ modalities at outpatient providers (these are CT, MRI and PET), and a series of articles on medical radiation exposure splashes across the New York Times.
In nearly concurrent moves, the Joint Commission (JC) unveils their just-developed Advanced Imaging (AI) accreditation program, the FDA is clamoring for new authority to regulate medical device safety (or gearing-up to use authority that it’s been hiding for safe-keeping, that isn’t exactly clear to me), the US Congress whips together a set of hearings on the issue, and, at those hearings, the American College of Radiology (ACR) recommends that the Feds expand the scope of the AI accreditation requirement to include radiation therapy and to apply the expanded accreditation requirements to hospitals, too.
Whew, that’s a lot of ground covered for radiology in just the last few weeks! Wait a minute… who is that sitting in the backseat? Who has been drug through all of the hullabaloo about radiation exposure and patient safety without once having been considered, individually? MRI, that’s who.
Click To Read About How MRI Should Be Considered…
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, advanced imaging, American College of Radiology, CMS, congress, CT, diagnostic, exposure, FDA, hearing, IAC, ICAMRL, imaging, injury, Intersocietal Commission, ioinizing, JC, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, MRI, PET, radiation, radiology, regulation, reimbursement, requirement, safety, standard, state
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 2 Comments »