Dr. James Hutchinson, Full Body MRI Inventor, Dies at Age 77
Inventor of the full-body MRI, James Hutchinson, PhD, passed away at age 77 on September 14, 2018 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Dr. Hutchinson created spin-warp imaging, a patent that has since been used in imaging centers all over the world. The technique allows physicians to capture images of parts of the body, which had been previously difficult to image. The first patient was scanned using the ground-breaking technology in August 1980.“Previously it had been taking other teams hours to get a poor quality image of a wrist or other small body part,” saidTom Redpath, PhD, one of Dr. Hutchinson ’s former students. “S...
Source: radRounds - September 13, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Researchers Develop Protocol That Improves Bone Metastases Detection by 30 Percent
At the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, researchers have developed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that improves the detection of bone metastases in the body and is a quicker process than a conventional MRI scan.Bone metastases consist of abnormal cells from the initial tumor site, and occurwhen the tumor spreads to the bone. Bone metastases can weaken and break bones, cause numbness, weakness, and compress the spinal cord. The condition can also have negative consequences on the bone marrow. Swift detection of bone metastases can prevent these symptoms. However, timely detection can be c...
Source: radRounds - September 13, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
All-in-One Medical Imaging Project Receives CHF 14 Million of Funding
Pristem SA, an international medical technology company, has received $14 million Swiss francs ($14.4 million USD) in funding to create and deliver medical imaging devices to low and middle income countries that lack adequate access to radiology services.Founded by Bertrand Klaiber in 2012, Pristem was spun out of EssentialTech, a program run by the Ecole Polytechnique F édérale de Lausanne that develops solutions for global problems. Over the years, more than 100 researchers, physicians, and tech experts across African and Swiss institutions including the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland (HES...
Source: radRounds - September 8, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Steve Ferrara, MD: First Radiologist to Win Congressional Election
Steve Ferrara, MD, could be on his way to being the first radiologist in Congress.The interventional radiologist secured 58.9 percent of the votes during Arizona ’s primary on August 28 for District 9, a Democrat-held seat. He defeated GOP nominee Dave Giles by 9,483 votes. He’s consideredto have raised more money than any other first time candidate in Arizona with over $1 millionin campaign funds, including $245,000cash on hand.The 9thDistrict includes the state ’s capital, Phoenix, where Hillary Clinton won during the 2016 presidential elections. On November 6, he will face democrat Greg Stanton, the city’s ...
Source: radRounds - September 8, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Using MRI to Tell the Difference Between Bipolar Disorder and Depression
Researchers at the University of Sydney and Westmead Institute for Medical Research are using MRI to distinguish bipolar disorder from depression.Around 60 percent of people with bipolar disorder are first diagnosed with depression. Bipolar disorder and depression demonstrate common clinical symptoms, and it can take up to ten years for patients to receive an accurate bipolar diagnosis.“These two illnesses are virtually identical except that bipolar individuals also experience mania, ” saidMayuresh Korgaonkar, one of the researchers.“This means distinguishing them can be difficult and presents a major clinical chall...
Source: radRounds - September 8, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Radiologists Have The Second Highest Rates of Misdiagnosis
Cancer is the most frequently misdiagnosed condition in imaging tests, with breast, lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer the most commonly misinterpreted cancers, according to a recent reportfrom Coverys, a New Jersey-based medical insurance provider.“Errors in radiology are unfortunately common and can have a severe and potentially life-threatening effect on those patients who are impacted by mistakes like a missed, delayed, or incorrect diagnosis,” saidthe report ’s author and vice president of business analytics, Robert Hanscom.Coverys looked at over 10,600 closed liability claims between 2013 and 2017 to ident...
Source: radRounds - August 30, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Facebook Wants to Speed Up Your MRI
New York University School of Medicine and Facebook ’s Artificial Intelligence Research group are joining forces to develop technology that will make MRI procedures take less time.MRIs are slow, and sometimes a patient can wait for up to an hour for their scan to finish. NYU ’s FastMRI project aims at significantly decreasing imaging processing wait time. Started in 2015, FastMRI generates a MRI scan that only features a portion of what was imaged, and uses machine learning systems to quickly fill in the unprocessed sections, so that the patient is only in the imaging room for half the amount of time. The expedited pro...
Source: radRounds - August 30, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
MRI Uncovers Missing Contact Lens Found 28 Years Later in Patient ’s Upper Eyelid
In Scotland, a contact lens that had gone missing for nearlythree decades was finally located when the owner of the lens underwent a MRI for upper eyelid swelling and ptosis.The MRI had indicated a cyst with proteinaceous content. When surgeons made an excision of the cyst, a rigid gas permeable (RGO) lens was discovered, deep in the upper eyelid soft tissue.“The features on the MRI were in keeping with a cyst with proteinaceous content. There were no radiological features of a foreign body seen within the cyst,” wrotethe patient ’s ophthalmologists in a report published in BMJ Case Reports.The disappearance of the...
Source: radRounds - August 30, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Using MRI to Determine Cognitive Recovery in Coma Patients
Researchers at the Neuroimaging for Coma Emergence and Recovery Consortium are using MRI and a multimodal MRI sequence to predict if comatose patients will regain full cognitive function when they emerge from their comas.Their studypublished inRadiology, specifically focused on comatose patients who have suffered from heart attacks. In around 80 percentof cases, patients who suffered from cardiac arrest take hours or weeks to emerge from their coma. Even when they wake up, there ’s no way to predict if they’ll have cognitive impairment or return to their normal cognitive state.The researchers used resting-state fun...
Source: radRounds - August 24, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Should We Use Brain Scan Technology to Predict Criminal Behavior?
Psychiatric forecasting was once a commonly used method in determining a convict ’s likelihood to commit future crimes. Although later evidence showed that the practice was ridden with racial biases and false positives, scientists and lawmakers are still interested in using brain activity to predict recidivism. A group of neuroscientists from the University of New Mexico have developed an algorithm to identify levels of gray matter in the brain in order to assess a person’s risk of criminal behavior.In theirstudypublished this past May inNeuroImage: Clinical, the group of researchers led by Kent A. Kiehl, PhD, professo...
Source: radRounds - August 24, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
The United Kingdom is Suffering from a Radiologist Shortage
Regions throughout the UK are grappling with low staff numbers in their radiology departments. According to the Royal College of Radiologists in Scotland, there has been a 10 percent increase in radiology demands over the last five years. The RCR was promised 10 additional trainees per year, and they need 25 more a year in order to keep up with patient needs.Grant Baxter, MD, the chair of the RCR in Scotland, told the BBC, " If we do not address this issue now, there simply won ' t be a service in the next three, four, five years. ” The radiologist shortage in Scotland isn’t news to anyone. Last year, the need for ra...
Source: radRounds - August 24, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Metal Hamper Brought into MRI Room Severely Injures Patient
A metal hamper was accidentally brought into a MRI room and quickly struck the patient ’s head, causing an orbital bone fracture in their eyebrow accordingto theLowell Sun.The incident, which occurred on June 16 at Lowell General Hospital Saints Campus in Massachusetts, resulted in the technician who brought in the metal hamper to being disciplined. The hospital administration are also organizing a review of safety protocols with its staff. The MRI-safe hamper had been mistakenly switched with a different kind that belonged in another part of the hospital. Both types of hampers had been specifically labeled, but the tec...
Source: radRounds - August 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
FDA Shuts Down Mammogram Services at a Miami Radiology Clinic
A well established radiology center in Miami is under scrutiny for the quality of their mammogram services performed between May 16, 2016 and April 9, 2018.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demanded Lakes Radiology II stop performing mammograms and send out letters to patients who had received mammograms over that two-year time period. According to NBC, the imaging clinic had failed to meet the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA), and the FDA rejected the center ’s accreditation due to “technical problems.”The FDA regularly inspects mammography imaging clinics to make sure they ’re meeting MQSA criteria...
Source: radRounds - August 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Getting to the Root of Gender Disparity in Radiology
In this study, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Emory University, and New York University looked at career data at a variety of academic facilities across the country from the Medicare Physician Compare database. They found that overall, representation rates differed by state, county, and practice levels, and disparities could often be attributed to demographic, socioeconomic, and political factors.There are more female radiologists practicing in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, with Washington DC having 39.3 percent female radiologists, Massachusetts with 34.2 percent, and Maryland with 31.5...
Source: radRounds - August 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Should the Radiology Extender Be Commonplace in Hospitals?
A recent studypublished in theJournal of the American College of Radiologyhas found that radiology extenders (RE) can expedite image reading processes, stabilize workloads, and sustain reimbursement rates for radiologists.The repetitive and demanding nature of reviewing over a thousand x-ray images a week can be monotonous for radiologists, and leave them feeling unaccomplished and inefficient in their other responsibilities. To relieve some of the burden of reviewing so many images, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania trained a radiologic technologist to be integrated with ...
Source: radRounds - August 14, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
