Alright, I don’t love the fact of being wrong, but my mission is to motivate improvements in MRI safety for patients, staff, and providers. I’m not the least bit interested in having the longest list of ‘I told you so’ moments, and I’m uncomfortable when someone applies the term ‘guru’ to me. I am openly, vocally, critical of organizations when I feel that they haven’t lived up to their obligation to reinforce MRI safety standards, so when one of them does well, I can’t tell you how happy I am to eat my prior words, and today is an example of that…
Posts Tagged ‘ferromagnetic’
I Love Being Wrong…
Sunday, March 7th, 2010Tags: 4-zone, ACR, code, detector, emergency, ferromagnetic, four-zone, imaging, infection control, injury, JCAHO, Joint Commission, magnetic, MR Conditional, MRI, patient, radiology, resonance, safety, screening, survey, TJC
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Joint Commission Advanced Imaging Accreditation Includes MRI Safety!
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010A few weeks ago the announcements came down, CMS had ‘deemed’ three organizations to accredit the new classification of Advanced Imaging in order to be eligible for Medicare & Medicaid reimbursement: the American College of Radiology (ACR), the Intersocietal Commission, and the Joint Commission (TJC).
The other two have had modality-specific accreditation programs for years, so what was the TJC going to do? Well, they’ve released their accreditation criteria, and one of the most wonderful surprises is that MRI safety is more prominent than it is in either of the other two ‘imaging’ accrediting bodies!
Tags: accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, detection, detector, ferromagnetic, ICAMRL, imaging, Intersocietal Commission, JCAHO, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, metal, MRI, radiology, recommendation, requirement, standard, survey, surveyor, TJC
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | 2 Comments »
MRI Projectile Accidents – One Exemplar
Friday, February 19th, 2010How to pick just one when there are a number of alarming, tragic, and needless MRI accidents to choose from? Let’s look at one that we can help the reader better imagine, the case of a pair of flying scissors that had to be surgically removed from a technologist’s forehead…

Tags: accident, burn, death, detector, FDA, ferromagnetic, head, imaging, injury, magnetic, MAUDE, MRI, patient, pre-screen, radiology, resonance, safety, scissors, screen, skull, Technologist
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 2 Comments »
Building An MRI, GE Accidentally Invents Time-Travel
Thursday, February 18th, 2010OK, I’ve been reading too many headlines in supermarket check-out aisles, but what else is a guy with an overactive imagination supposed to come up with?
You see, back in 1983 when GE was going through their pre-market approvals with the FDA for their first commercial clinical MRI system, they indicated that MRI suite safety minimally required ferromagnetic detection pre-screening. The only problem was, it hadn’t been invented yet!
Tags: airport, death, detection, detector, FDA, ferromagnetic, GE, General Electric, hazard, healthcare, Hitachi, injury, metal, missile, MRI, Philips, physicist, projectile, regulation, safety, Siemens, Toshiba
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
MRI ‘Finds’ Forceps Left In Surgical Patient
Friday, February 12th, 2010News broke the other day of a nurse in England who was in agony for three months following a routine surgery during which her gall-bladder was removed. Fearing an infection, she was sent for an MRI. Unfortunately, the MRI could not be completed as the magnetic field began torquing the 7-inch pair of forceps that had been left inside her abdomen during the surgery, causing excruciating pain! Click Here For The Follow-Up X-ray And The Rest Of The Story…
Tags: accident, detection, England, ferromagnetic, forceps, gall bladder, injury, instrument, magnetic resonance, MRI, never event, retained, surgery, surgical, UK, x-ray
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Colombini, Codes, Metal Detectors And MRI Safety
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Go grab yourself a cup of coffee before you continue… this is going to be a long (for me, anyway) rant.
Ready? OK…
Let’s start at the very beginning (“what a very good place to start”). Click To Read The Whole Story…
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, ASHE, best practice, colombini, death, detector, ECRI, FDA, ferromagnetic, GE, guidelines, Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, healthcare, imaging, injury, JCAHO, Joint Commission, law, lawsuit, legal, license, magnetic, magnetic resonance, Marzendorfer, Mednovus, metal, Michael, MRI, MRI Design Guide, radiology, regulation, require, safety, Siemens, standard, TJC, VA
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 4 Comments »
$2.9 Million Settlement Closes Colombini MRI Death Case
Thursday, February 4th, 2010This week the settlement documents were released — closing the chapter on the lawsuit that arose from the seminal event in MRI safety, the 2001 oxygen tank fatality of then-six-year-old Michael Colombini.
Tags: accident, civil, colombini, death, fatality, ferromagnetic, hazard, imaging, injury, lawsuit, liability, magnet, magnetic, magnetic resonance, medical, metal, missile, MR, MRI, patient, projectile, radiology, regulation, resonance, safety, screening, suit, trial
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 2 Comments »
Gurney Crashes MRI, Patient Injured, Hospital Fined $50K
Sunday, January 24th, 2010It is the stuff of fabled oral-histories, often dismissed as MRI urban-legend. The patient is wheeled into the MRI room on a gurney that goes flying toward the scanner. “How on Earth could these accidents happen when we know about these risks,” the skeptics question? Almost never does more than a single fragment of information surface about these sorts of accidents and, without verification, nearly all accounts can be erroneously written-off as fiction. Or, that was until enough pieces fell into place to conclusively document a recent episode… Click Here To Read More About MRI Gurney Accidents…
Tags: accident, accreditation, death, detection, detector, FDA, ferromagnetic, hazard, imaging, injury, magnetic, magnetic resonance, MAUDE, medical, metal, missile, MR, MRI, patient, projectile, radiology, regulation, resonance, risk, safety, screening, suit
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 3 Comments »
Fear and Clothing In MRI-Land: An MRI Safety Tale
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Near the end of last year I posted an article from an RSNA ‘tip of the day’ regarding external fixation, halo, hardware and ferromagnetic risks. Now, in the first few weeks of 2010 we learn of new MRI safety risks from orthopedic hardware that may be more common than halo systems, scoliosis body braces.
External fixation and braces are typically very carefully screened for contraindication for MRI examination, but what may not be as frequently screened is the clothing underneath. Click Here For The Rest Of The Story…
Tags: brace, burn, clothing, detection, ferromagnetic, fiber, fixation, halo, hazard, heating, injury, magnetic resonance, metal, MRI, orthopedic, RF, risk, safety, silver, T-shirt
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
ThermaCare HeatWrap Dangerous In MRI?
Friday, January 8th, 2010Yesterday I was provided a copy of an anonymized MRI accident / incident report which described how an MRI patient wearing a ThermaCare HeatWrap (something of a self-warming patch for muscle aches) had the wrap pulled off of them by the magnetic attraction of the MRI.

ThermaCare HeatWrap Products Contain Iron And May Be Drawn Into MRI Scanners
Click To Read More About This Incident And How To Prevent Similar Accidents From Occurring…
Tags: accident, detector, ferromagnetic, ferrous, hazard, heat, imaging, injury, iron, magnet, metal, missile, MRI, near-miss, projectile, resonance, risk, SAFESCAN, safety, screening, ThermaCare, wrap
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
