Posts Tagged ‘imaging’
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 »
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 »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
It’s almost enough to bring my high school English teacher back from the dead… me, railing on someone else’s vocabulary skills. What I’m talking about here is the new Revo pacemaker (formerly known as Enrhythm) by Medtronic, designed to allow pacemaker patients to receive MRI scans.
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Tags: cardiac, Enrhythm, FDA, imaging, magnetic, media, Medtronic, MR Conditional, MR Safe, MR Unsafe, MRI, news, pacemaker, reporter, resonance, Revo, safety
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Unlike most of my posts, this one does not offer a position, much less a ‘call to action.’ Instead, I pose a question. You can read it as rhetorical, and allow me to stew in my own juices, or offer your thoughts. The essence of my question is what obligation do I have when I see horrible MRI suite design?
Click To Learn If He Resolves His Dilemma…
Tags: architect, construction, department, design, dilemma, engineer, hospital, imaging, manager, MRI, project, radiology, safety, suite
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Sunday, December 19th, 2010
First, let me say that this isn’t a ‘leak’ in the sense that none of the information I’m about to share is (any longer) confidential. This information is all public record as a result of court filings for the now-settled civil suit surrounding the 2001 MRI fatality of Michael Colombini. There are documents associated with that civil lawsuit which did not wind up as filings with the court and therefore are not a part of the public record. I have no difficulty not releasing those because (among other reasons) I don’t have any of them.
“Why — now — ten years later would you post these documents?”
Excellent question! Here’s why I didn’t publish these long ago…
Click To Learn Why These Weren’t Published, And What They Say…
Tags: civil, colombini, cylinder, death, department of health, deposition, fatality, imaging, incident, injury, investigation, lawsuit, layer, legal, magnetic resonance, MRI, New York, oxygen, projectile, radiology, report, safety, settlement, suit, tank, testimony, trial, Westchester Medical Center
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
I stumbled across a paper abstract from the International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice. The abstract described a meeting on radiation oncology safety which, “attracted 400 attendees, including medical physicists, radiation oncologists, medical dosimetrists, radiation therapists, hospital administrators, regulators, and representatives of equipment manufacturers. The meeting was cohosted by 14 organizations in the United States and Canada.”
Damn! I’m impressed, particularly since the abstract also states that this meeting was hastily called in response to articles appearing, starting in January of this year, in the New York Times on radiology and radiation therapy accidents. Such a coordinated response by the professional societies. Such representation from the professional community at a time when conference and professional development budgets are being slashed. How does this compare with MRI?
Click To Read How The Two Compare…
Tags: accident, adverse event, death, fatality, FDA, imaging, injury, magnetic resonance, MAUDE, medicine, MRI, nuclear, oncology, radiation, radiology, safety, therapy
Posted in 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 »
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Make no mistake, I believe that healthcare has a special obligation to protect the well being of our patients, our beneficiaries, our charges. When it comes to radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation therapy (where treating the patient involves sticking them in an astoundingly complex machine and exercising advanced concepts in physics to have a computer reconstruct fragments of data into an intelligible picture)… well its just so damned complicated that we have to assume the full responsibility for patient safety because, under those circumstances, it is wholly unreasonable to expect the patient to be active participants in their own safety.
Click To Read More About Our Special Radiology Safety Duty…
Tags: accident, cancer, death, imaging, injury, lifetime, magnetic, medicine, MRI, nuclear, NY Times, patient, radiation, radiography, radiology, resonance, risk, safe, safety, therapy, Walt Bogdanich
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 6th, 2010
Color me flattered! (which I think is the color of that shirt in the illustration)
Wired UK Illustration by Lee Hasler. Click for Wired UK source.
The UK edition of Wired magazine just ran one of their ‘featurettes’ on this blog and picked their favorite (though, that’s a slightly squint word-choice for potentially deadly accidents) types of projectile accidents. Quote’s from — and a direct link to — the article follow.
Click To Continue And Get The Link To The Wired UK Article…
Tags: accident, death, ferromagnetic, flat screen, floor, gun, gurney, handgun, image, imaging, injury, link, magnetic, missile, monitor, MRI, picture, pistol, polisher, projectile, resonance, safety, scissors, Vaughan Bell, wheelchair, Wired
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Last year I highlighted an FDA MRI accident report in which a technologist had to have a pair of scissors surgically removed from his forehead after they’d caught him between the magnet-homing missile that they became, and the isocenter of the MRI. You may remember that I fauxtoshopped a hypothesis as to what that accident would have looked like on plain film: perhaps something like this… Click For More On What This Accident Was Like…
Tags: accident, death, fatality, FDA, force, imaging, injury, magnetic, MAUDE, missile, MRI, patient, projectile, radiographer, resonance, safety, scissors, Technologist, translational
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | 2 Comments »