Posts Tagged ‘safety’
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 »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Those who know me know that I’m an upbeat person. Not the spring-out-of-be-fifteen-minutes-before-the-alarm-”so-happy-to-greet-the-morning” type of upbeat, but more of an indefatigable cautious-optimism. Yes, there are bad days… days when I’d just prefer to pull the covers over my head to wait to see if next week Thursday offers enough to coax me out of bed. But I’m of the firm belief that – on those days – you have to drag your sorry butt out of bed and put one foot in front of the other, if for no other reason than you might forget how if you skip a day. Someday, no matter how distant or unlikely, you will meet your goal.
Guess what? Today is one of my somedays! (more…)
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, annual meeting, FDA, injury, Joint Commission, license, magnetic resonance, MRI, regulation, requirement, safety, standard, workshop
Posted in Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Ironically, those two words – so similar on the surface – often turn out to be antonyms. Today I’m going to attempt to provide you with some transparency relative to a recent disappearance here on this site.
Want To Learn About What Disappeared, And Why?
Tags: accident, accreditation, ACR, ambulatory, American College of Radiology, fatality, hospital, JCAHO, JCR, Joint Commission, MRI, safety, TJC
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.
(more…)
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 »
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
I’m not big on New Years’ resolutions. In fact, I’ve previously resolved to not resolve… but today I’m breaking that vow (or would that be a ‘disavow’?). This year there are just too many things precariously poised — that could fall our way or not — that I can’t help but to resolve to rededicate myself to making substantive changes to industry standards and practices for MR safety, and here’s how I’m going to do it…
Click To Learn How…
Tags: 2011, accident, accreditation, ACR, American College of Radiology, care, Center for Medicare, CMS, death, fatality, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, injury, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, MRI, New Year, practice, resolution, risk, safety, standard, TJC
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, 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 »
Friday, December 10th, 2010
I hope my 2011 nPSG on MRI safety doesn’t cause any confusion with the Joint Commission’s new NPSG (National Patient Safety Goals). The fact is that this is distinct… it only uses the Joint Commission’s own wording to craft a patient safety goal specific to MRI in an effort to break through the paper-thin fallacy of ‘supporting MRI safety’ without providing (a) specific standards, (b) comparable scrutiny based on TJC published best-practices, (c) enforcement of requisite risk-management standards as they would apply to MRI, or (d) specific expert training on MRI safety issues for their on-site surveyor corps.
So, here is the justification my new nPSG, using the Joint Commission’s own words… Click Here To Read TJC’s Own Words On MRI Safety…
Tags: JCAHO, Joint Commission, magnetic resonance, MRI, National Patient Safety Goal, NPSG, nuclear, patient, regulation, safety, standard, TJC
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 3 Comments »