 December is usually a 'triple feature' month for the MRI Newsletter. First, we get to recap RSNA. Second, we get to introduce you to the array of new materials that will be coming out in the 2006 issues of the Newsletter. And third, we tout the final public access issue for the year. To our non-subscribing recipients, this month all of the feature articles are available to you! To our usual December mix, this year we have to add in the recent media attention that MRI safety and design have received.
Not the least of these is the fact that Radiology Today Magazine ran a three-part series on MRI facility safety issues in their October 31st, November 14th and November 28th issues. The articles describe the importance of proper MRI suite design and lift up examples of a few poorly designed MRI suites to show how NOT to build an MRI suite.
Additionally, the November 2nd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) featured an article entitled 'Safety Improvements Urged for MRI Facilities'. The article focuses on recent information on the sorry state of accident reporting data.
MRI safety has also been getting a great deal of mass media play as well. This included a Knight-Ridder syndicated article which ran in papers across the country from the Monterey County Herald, to the Philadelphia Inquirer, to the Bradenton Herald in Tampa Bay.
And if newspapers are too old fashioned for you, there have also been a number of television news stories that have popped up across the country, from WOWT in Nebraska to WSOC in North Carolina. In fact, we're featuring a list of 10 questions - from the WSOC website - that patients are to ask their MRI provider. This new '10 Question' feature is available to everyone in the column to the right.
Of course, you can find links to many of these stories, as well as many others, from our website: www.MRI-Planning.com/articles.html.
If you've ever had any questions about the value of this newsletter, take a look at the information linked above and the wealth of news we bring to your 'in box', read the feature articles to the right or scan the article archive available below, and consider that if the information in just one article helps you to scan just one patient more, you've paid for your subscription several times over. And we bet that you will get much more value out of a single year's subscription that just that!
Please see the link below in 'News Bite' for information on how you can subscribe and not miss a single feature article in 2006. We're very much looking forward to the new year with you!
Tobias Gilk
Junk Architects, PC
Invite Your Friends & Colleagues.
We are always pleased to share the newsletter with your friends. If you would like to invite a colleague to receive the complimentary version of the MRI Newsletter, please let us know and we will extend an invitation to them on your behalf.
Click here to refer a friend
Subscribe Right Now To The MRI Newsletter!
Please act now to make sure that you don't miss a single feature article from the MRI Newsletter. Click here to go to the page that describes our subscription options, which include online credit card processing and traditional mail-in options. Act now to make certain that nothing delays your full subscriber's edition of the January MRI Newsletter.
MRI Newsletter - Article Archive Is Now On Line!
We're pleased to provide an archive of all previous MRI Newsletter articles. Click here to see all the articles that have appeared in the Newsletter, including features on 'Magnetic Contamination,' 'ACR 4-Zone,' and 'Construction Planning,' just to name a few.
We should note that, while the archive index is available to everyone, only subscribers will be able to access the full text of all articles. Articles that appeared in this year's April and August issue are available to everyone.
|
 |
MRI Purchase Contracts:
How To Simplify Magnet Purchase And Installation.
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
If you recently attended RSNA, particularly if you were there shopping for a new MRI system, perhaps your head has stopped spinning by now. So many vendors. So many magnet systems. So many choices. Are you prepared to enter the 3.0 T arms race? Headed towards the cutting-edge with a high-field open MRI? Clinical necessity and raw economics will drive much of your purchase decision, but what other considerations should you review before you sign that million-dollar contract?
There are a number of options open to buyers of MRI equipment which enable you to simplify the purchase process and consolidate multiple loose ends under a single contract.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
10 Questions Patients Should Ask Their MRI Provider:
Is This Real Or Is It Hype?
By Tobias Gilk
Clearly information about MRI safety has been making it into the public press in 2005 more than it has in years, from the front page of the New York Times to Good Morning America to local newspapers and television news broadcasts. But many of these stories have been presented as if these accidents are pure curiosities. But what if patients, the healthcare consumers, began questioning their personal safety during an MRI? What questions might they ask their MRI center?
WSOC, a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, offered 10 questions for patients to ask, but do they really address suite safety issues or are they watered-down hype or worse, pure marketing hyperbole?
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Doubling Down:
Raising The Stakes Of MRI Patient Safety.
By Tobias Gilk
I hope that the recent rise in MRI suite safety awareness not simply cyclic, like the tide in super slow-motion; falling for a couple of years, then rising again. It’s my hope that the current gentle swell isn’t a crest which is about to recede again, but rather just the developing broad concern for the speed and direction that MRI patient safety is headed.
MRI utilization is up roughly 50% in four years and, as all the vendors and journals boast, new applications for MRI are expected to follow breast MRI’s lead, just one CPT code away from success. MR spectroscopy, MR-guided focused ultrasound, MR-guided angioplasty and untold others are stretching the clinical bounds of MRI, broadening the potential patient base and, ultimately, sustaining MRI’s growth in the years ahead.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Articles In The Works In 2006 we will continue to share articles with you on a number of topics, from tools that are immediately applicable, to strategies that will help you on into the future. Several planned upcoming articles include:
- MRI Accident Data: What Every Facility Should Know
- Access Control Devices: Keeping Zone III Secure
- Quench Pipe Safety: How To Spot Trouble
As always, please feel free to contact us if there's ever a subject you would like us to explore in the newsletter.
We Love Hearing From You!
Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments on the articles or issues you'd like to see covered.
Junk Architects, PC
802 Broadway - 5th Floor
Kansas City, MO 64105
816-472-7722
MRI_Expert@JunkArchitects.com
|
