The first special event is a presentation that AHRA invited me to give entitled ‘MRI Safety, Liability, and Best Practice.’ If you received the conference program mailers a few weeks ago that indicated that I am giving this presentation on that first Sunday of the conference, don’t believe it! I am not giving this presentation on Sunday, but I am giving it on Monday, August 10th, from 2:30 – 4:00. (They’ve done a little juggling that changed a few scheduled presentations.)

The program will touch on a number of the MR safety developments of the last several years, though even more from a management perspective than any of my prior presentations to AHRA.

This is the first special invitation and I would very much love for you to join me on Monday afternoon. There are lots of other great sessions, however, and I understand if you have your eyes on another program scheduled for the same slot. I’ll miss you though, and will stare wistfully at your empty chair in the presentation.

Which brings me to my ½-event invitation. It’s actually a full event. It’s 90-minutes long, just like my Monday presentation. In fact, it’s almost exactly like the 90-minute Monday presentation because AHRA has asked me to offer this program twice! If you can’t make Monday afternoon, please come by Tuesday morning, from 8:00 – 9:30, to see ‘MRI Safety, Liability, and Best Practice’. I’ll actually feel much better on Monday if you’re not there, since we have this opportunity to meet up on Tuesday. And if you’re a glutton for punishment, or if you just want to see what I do to mix it up from one day to the next, you’re welcome to attend both sessions.

The last special event to which this post invites you is actually a revolving, ongoing set of conversations that I would love to share with you. When I’m not on the podium in front of large audiences, I will be in the Mednovus booth on the exhibit hall floor (booth #828 / 830), having one-on-one and small group conversations. I invite you to come by and join in a personal conversation with me and my colleagues about how best to prepare your MRI facility for the rapid-fire changes that are in process.

Though it’s only 4 weeks until AHRA, the great people at Mednovus are diligently working on special announcements that will be released in the lead-up to the annual meeting. Please stay tuned to be among the first to learn of what’s going on.

I hope to have the chance to see you at the annual meeting. Please do join me in one (or both) of my presentations, and do visit with me and my colleagues in our booth. I’m really looking forward to it.

The new VA MRI Design Guide takes a quantum leap in addressing new technologies, new clinical practices and new tools and tactics for enhancing the safety of patients and staff. One of these new strategies includes the use of ferromagnetic detection systems for MRI patient screening.

The new Design Guide is fully downloadable in PDF form in four individual sections from the VA’s website:

http://www.va.gov/facmgt/standard/dg_imag.asp

Or, you can download the complete document, rolled into one PDF, from the Mednovus website:

http://www.Mednovus.com/downloads/VA_MRI_Design_Guide-08.pdf

The VA joins a growing list of professional bodies, accrediting agencies and organizations recommending the use of ferromagnetic detection for patient screening.

In a forthcoming entry I’ll feature quotes from and links to these various standards calling for the use of ferromagnetic detection to enhance MRI patient screening.

Regards,

Honestly, most materials made with the purpose of being brought into the MRI room are mostly made up of aluminum, plastics, titanium, brass and other non-magnetic materials. Were a MRI facility to use one of the conventional ‘airport-style’ metal detectors, it’d go off on just about everything that was brought to the room. Talk about annoying! Metal is everywhere, from the rivets in your blue jeans [Beeep] or shoe-lace grommets [Beeep], the clasp or underwire in bras [Beeep], reinforced toes or lugs in shoes [Beeep], gold jewelry [Beeep], stainless steel braces [Beeep] and dental work [Beeep], hair pins [Beeep] and a menagerie of other common, everyday non-magnetic items. If the plain-old metal detector alarms on everyone and everything brought through it, what help is it, really?

But it’s crucial to improve screening and keep the magnetic metals out of the MRI room. If the plain-old metal detector can’t help differentiate between those metals that are meant to be in the MRI room and those that are supposed to be kept out, what does?

Ferromagnetic detectors, such as the Mednovus SAFESCAN™ products, are designed to help MRI providers find magnetic materials to keep them away from the MRI magnet. Whether a hand-held ferromagnetic detector (FMD) such as the Target Scanner™ or pass-through systems such as the Sentinel® 2.0, these products can dramatically improve the quality of the safety screening for patients, visitors and equipment brought to the MRI room.

So, despite the name of this blog, those looking to improve the safety of patients and staff in MRI, as well as enhance the protection of millions of dollars of capital investment in the MRI itself, should NOT be using plain-old metal detection. For MRI screening, providers should be using ferromagnetic detection.

These are not ‘airport-style’ detectors that you’ve passed-through under the watchful eyes of the TSA workers… No, these are specialty detectors that have been developed for the sole purpose of finding ferromagnetic materials, those that become magnet-homing-missiles, to keep them out of MRI scanners.

Well, when you consider that objects can zoom in at speeds up to (and beyond) 40 miles per hour, and that oxygen cylinders and floor polishers and many other objects have injured patients and staff and incapacitated millions of dollars of MRI equipment, the protection of both people and the sizable capital investment demands additional layers of safety.

MRI services are very expensive to provide and generate huge amounts of revenue (they have to in order to pay for themselves). Even if it weren’t a safety issue, when a MRI provider is faced with a loss of $1,000 per hour (revenue that they can’t earn while the scanner is inoperable) plus the ongoing overhead expenses that almost equal the hourly revenue, a ‘lost day’ of MRI scanning can result in tens-of-thousands of dollars in unrecoverable costs.

Above-and-beyond the financial arguments, this is a safety issue, one that has been endorsed by the American College of Radiology (ACR) Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices: 2007 and by the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert #38

“[F]erromagnetic detection systems are currently available that are simple to operate, capable of detecting even very small ferromagnetic objects external to the patient, and now, for the first time, differentiating between ferromagnetic and nonferromagnetic materials. While the use of conventional metal detectors is not recommended, the use of ferromagnetic detection systems is recommended as an adjunct to thorough and conscientious screening of persons and devices approaching Zone IV.”  [emphasis mine]
– p. 4

“Ferromagnetic detection systems have been demonstrated to be highly effective as a quality assurance tool, verifying the successful screening and identifying ferromagnetic objects which were not discovered by conventional screening methods. It is recommended that new facility construction anticipate the use of ferromagnetic detection screening in Zone II and provide for installation of the devices in a location which facilitates use and throughput.” [emphasis mine]
– Appendix 2, p. 21

– ACR Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices: 2007

“[U]se other means to determine if the patient has implants or other devices that could be negatively affected by the MRI scan (e.g., look for scars or deformities, scrutinize the patient’s history, use plain-film radiography, use ferromagnetic detectors to assist in the screening process, etc.).”  [emphasis mine]

– Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert #38

I can’t wait to share with you even more of the information I have on MRI safety issues and the simple and direct steps that MRI patients and providers can take to make sure that MRI continues to build upon its reputation as one of the safest medical imaging modalities available.