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…
Posts Tagged ‘radiology’
Pent-Up MRI Equipment Demand To Break In 2010?
Monday, January 18th, 2010In 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?
2009 – The MRI Safety Year That Wasn’t
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010But 2010 holds the promise of reversing course.
Throughout 2009, we saw tantalizing glimpses of potential MRI safety improvements, which repeatedly escaped becoming real. Here are my ‘Top 3′ near-miss opportunities of 2009 to substantially reshape MR safety…
RSNA 2009 Epilogue
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Confession time: I have a love-hate relationship with RSNA. I love going, attending educational sessions (the handful that interest me and that my brain can wrap around) and cruising the technical exhibits to see what’s new and interesting. My experiences as an exhibitor, well, they were universally disappointing… until this year that is…
Can We Still Call Them ‘Never Events’ When Accidents Happen So Frequently In MRI?
Monday, December 7th, 2009This post attempts to draw-together two recent threads from here on the MRI Metal Detector blog. First, there was a long-running question about the FDA and their online-accessible database of medical device accidents which, for months, appeared to be malfunctioning, and recently was repaired. Second, there was my post in which I identified 5 MRI ‘Never Events’ which, if industry standard procedures are followed, should never occur.
MRI ‘Never Event’ In Athens, Alabama
Sunday, December 6th, 2009The Athens, Alabama, News Courier ran a story December 4th on their website about a 21-month boy who received a 3rd degree burn from an MRI. This hits square in the middle of the 5 MRI ‘never events’ that were enumerated a few months ago here on this blog.
ECRI Top 10 Medical Technology Hazards Includes MRI Projectiles
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Every year the ECRI Institute publishes their Top 10 health technology hazards, identifying the 10 most serious (and unintended) risks posed by our ever-increasing use of sophisticated medical devices to diagnose and treat patients. In November, the Institute released their 2010 watch list, which dedicated a Top 10 slot, and an entire page, to ferromagnetic projectiles in MRI.
Installment 3(b) – MRI Safety Tour of RSNA Exhibit Hall A (part 2)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009(This is a continuation of my recommended MRI safety vendor itinerary, starting at the North Hall, which you can read about here, Lakeside Center, which you can read about here, and the first half of the South Hall, which you can read about here.)
Our company, Mednovus, is making the annual pilgrimage to Chicago after Thanksgiving for the biggest of all radiology trade shows, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting. In my original post I indicated why I thought MRI safety would be a ‘hot topic’ at this year’s RSNA, and gave an itinerary for the North Hall (the Philips Hall) for stops at relevant vendors, including our company, Mednovus (booth #7801). Then I followed up with an itinerary for the Lakeside Center, and just a couple days ago, I provided half of the South Hall.
Continuing on that theme, and to facilitate your review of MRI safety products and vendors, I’d like to suggest an itinerary for visiting the remaining select group of exhibitors from Exhibit Hall A, the South Hall, where the GE mega-booth is located…
Click To Read The Final Installment Of My MRI Safety Vendor Itinerary…
Installment 3(a) – MRI Safety Tour of RSNA Exhibit Hall A (part 1)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009(This is a continuation of my recommended MRI safety vendor itinerary, starting at the North Hall, which you can read about here, and Lakeside Center, here.)
Our company, Mednovus, is making the annual pilgrimage to Chicago after Thanksgiving for the biggest of all radiology trade shows, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting. In my original post I indicated why I thought MRI safety would be a ‘hot topic’ at this year’s RSNA, and gave an itinerary for the North Hall (the Philips Hall) for stops at relevant vendors, including our company, Mednovus (booth #7801). Then I followed up with an itinerary for the Lakeside Center.
Continuing on that theme, and to facilitate your review of MRI safety products and vendors, I’d like to suggest an itinerary for visiting a select group of exhibitors, this time in Exhibit Hall A, the South Hall, where the GE mega-booth is located…
2010 ‘Guidelines’ Healthcare Building Code To Have MRI Safety Requirements
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009“Tweet, tweet” is usually all I hear from little birdies… but one little bird that flew past my office recently had a surprisingly large vocabulary and told me of new requirements that will be introduced in the forthcoming 2010 update to the ‘Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities’ (commonly referred to as ‘Guidelines’).
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Guidelines, they are the design requirements that are cited by the Joint Commission and, at last count, 42 of the 50 U.S. State Departments of Health. Technically, they aren’t a building code, but the function in almost the exact same way. For the first time, the Guidelines are going to have specific MRI suite design requirements for patient safety.
2010 Guidelines
Click Here To Read About The Specific MRI Safety Design Requirements…