Posts Tagged ‘magnetic resonance’
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 | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
In stark contrast to the speed with which we expect to see medical technology advance, the more bureaucratic process of regulatory or accreditation tends to be more deliberative and… oh heck, I’ll just say it… glacial in its pace to keep up. Every once in a while, however, these efforts ’sling-shot’ forward.
Much to my surprise (and delight), this is happening with the new Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities (or Guidelines, for short). Though the 2010 edition of Guidelines has only been published for about a month (and the publisher has been struggling to catch up on back-ordered copies), two states have already adopted the 2010 edition as their requirements for licensure.
Click To Learn If Your State Is Among The First…
Tags: architect, code, design, engineer, equipment, facility, Georgia, guideline, Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, hospital, imaging, license, magnetic resonance, MRI, New Jersey, planner, radiology, regulation, requirement, safety, standard, state, vendor
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
A 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!
Click To Learn What’s In The New JCAHO Standard…
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 »
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
And what’s even more alarming is that 20% of those implant patients that get MRIs experience some sort of device malfunction afterward! And yet, the dangers of imaging these patients are not well known by the doctors who prescribe these imaging studies.
Click To Learn Just How Many Doctors and Patients Are Ill-Informed Of These Risks…
Tags: accreditation, ACR, Aging, American College of Radiology, contraindicated, Council, device, doctor, FDA, imaging, implant, Intersocietal Commission, JCAHO, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, MRI, National, pacemaker, patient, regulation, scan, study, TJC
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
News 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 »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Go 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 »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
This 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.
Click To Learn More About The Accident And Settlement…
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 »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
It 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…
Woman On Hospital Gurney 'Sandwiched' Against MRI :
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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 »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Near 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 »
Monday, January 18th, 2010
In the radiology community, it’s widely known… the economic downturn has eviscerated the equipment manufacturers’ sales of high-dollar imaging tools. The sour economy, coupled with the drastic cuts in MRI and CT reimbursements, in particular, have hit those two modalities hardest. Eighteen months into this economic malaise, are there signs of recovery? Apparently GE Healthcare thinks so…
Is GE Preparing For The MRI Rebound?
Click For Details On Thawing MRI Markets…
Tags: buy, economy, equipment, GE, growth, imaging, magnetic resonance, manufacturer, MRI, new, obsolescence, obsolete, radiology, sales, used
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »