Lawrence Altman grew up the son of a radiologist in Massachusetts, and the family literally lived over the office. His anecdotes of his father’s work, and his descriptions of early radiology practice from the 1930s are not to be missed.

He followed his father into medicine, but it’s clear that his true forte is as a writer. Just a super piece.

Radiology Was Young, and So Was I (registration required, sorry)

Some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths. I grew up in a lead cocoon.

My father, Dr. William S. Altman, known as Sol, was a radiologist, and his office and its X-ray machines occupied the first floor of our house in Quincy, Mass. To protect his staff members, his patients and our family from scatter radiation, he lined many walls, floors and doors with lead sheets. We learned to open and close those heavy doors carefully to avoid jamming a finger.

Technorati Tags: radiology, history, biography, medicine

They’re developing communities, including breast imaging, cardiac, and musculoskeletal interest groups, and the forums seem to be attracting some useful discussion. One to watch.

Medicexchange

Fed up with one size fits all? Need more choice? Find the the world’s leading medical imaging solutions all in one place on Medicexchange.

Technorati Tags: teleradiology, purchasing, imaging, medicexchange

Any readers know the answer?

The Modesto Bee :: Scanner puts docs in right position

Advances in radiology seem to emerge every week, whether it’s the computer tomography scanner that can detect grain-size cancer tissues in the lungs or compact ultrasound machines that are carted to remote villages in Third World countries.Doctors Medical Center is touting its O-arm, which is giving surgeons quality images while the patient lies on the operating room table. DMC purchased the $800,000 mobile imaging platform and deployed it in March. Only two others are in operation in California, one at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, the other at a hospital in Santa Barbara.

Dr. Benjamin Remington, a neurosurgeon, said he is using the O-arm platform several times a week for spinal fusion operations, in which two vertebrae are united to stabilize a patient’s back. Screws need to be inserted in the vertebra at a certain depth and angle. The scanner allows him to inspect his work before he closes the patient’s sutures.

Surgeons at DMC have access to a portable X-ray machine in the operating rooms, but the pictures are inferior and moving its arm into place near the patient increases the risk of infection.

The O-arm is primarily suited for spinal and orthopedic procedures. But as the software is improved, Remington hopes to use it in operations to remove brain tumors or insert electrodes for deep brain stimulation, a procedure that stops tremors in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Technorati Tags: o-arm, scanner, radiology, teleradiology

The Mineral County Hospital is now hooked in with hospitals in Ronan, Anaconda, and Polson in a revolutionary new way for hospital to share data. The system is called the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) and St. Luke’s in Ronan was the first hospital in Montana to use the system.

“That means that you can transmit X-rays and other MRI’s any way you want, around the world,” said Con Warren, vice president of the Hospital Foundation. “It means that our doctors can take an X-ray and immediately send it to a doctor in Missoula. As a rural hospital, it is a great advantage to have.”

I honestly thought this might have been a late April Fool’s prank, but if it’s on the Internet, I guess it must be true!

According to research originally conducted in Japan blueberry juice is effective as a contrast agent to improve, or delineate, the structures of the stomach, duodenum, small bowel, large bowel, pancreas and bile ducts. That’s because blueberry juice is rich in manganese.

The metal is an essential element in our diet. Dr. David Hodges, a radiologist who is medical director of MedRay MRI clinic in Coquitlam, said while manganese does not have magnetic properties of its own, it “exhibits strong magnetic properties when exposed to an external magnetic field, such as what one encounters inside an MRI scanner.”

Patients worldwide reap benefits of shrinking technology - CNN.com

As ultrasound machines become more compact and their image quality more precise, doctors have begun carrying the body-imaging technology to rural U.S. hospitals and developing countries. No longer is ultrasound available only to hospitals with reliable power supplies and room for bulky equipment. The portable battery-operated machines aren’t expected to completely replace standard console-sized units, just as laptop computers haven’t rendered desktop models obsolete. But industry expert Harvey Klein said the compact machines are proving popular among doctors outside the traditional areas of radiology, cardiology and prenatal care.

Around half the hospitals in England now use a digital system which allows radiologists and doctors to access all images, including CT, MRI and X-ray, on a computer screen. Doctors and nurses on the wards, A&E or outpatients can view images instantaneously and get a quick second opinion from a radiologist looking at the same image on a screen in their office.

With more than 1,300 hospitals under contract, NightHawk is making a huge vote of confidence in TeraRecon’s teleradiology products. As the demand for 3D post processing grows, this contract positions TeraRecon — and their Aquarius servers — as a major force in the 3D visualization market.

“NightHawk undertook a careful and exhaustive evaluation of the leading 3D technologies and vendors. The choice of TeraRecon was based upon its superior workflow solutions and powerful enterprise 3D products which we concluded were ideally suited for teleradiology,” according to Bill Shea M.D., Vice President of 3D Imaging Services at NightHawk Radiology Services.

Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Speeds Up Document Turnaround Times with SRC Dragon Professional Speech Recognition Solution

Barry Cotton, Head of Imaging at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who foresaw a need for a speech recognition solution in the wake of reductions in secretarial resource, said he was “delighted with the overall performance of the software and the speed at which users positively adopted the new system.”

The most stringent challenge Barry faced was clearing and then stamping out typing backlogs. “Before SRC deployed the system we had over 1,000 reports awaiting transcription. Once the Speech Recognition system was in place we managed to clear the backlog in two weeks and the software has ensured typing backlogs haven’t built up again.” As an underlying result, the reduced backlog ensures that reports and urgent diagnosis and treatments can be delivered without unnecessary delays, “document turnaround times are now immediate thanks to the software rather than taking days,” continued Barry.

Just as it is for a small branch medical clinic in the military, if a small civilian family practice wanted to get into telemedicine or teleradiology, there would be very few options out there without going through the big box vendors like GE or Phillips.