 I've never been a huge fan of New Year's Eve as a holiday. While I rarely make resoutions specific to the coming year, I certainly get excited about it. Perhaps it's a little bit of buyer's remorse, a worry that everything I hoped the new year would bring can't possibly come. But then, as January wears on, I regain the optimistic momentum, leaving me raring for the new year.
Which brings us to February and the realization that 2006 will bring even more than I had anticipated!
 We have begun to assemble our new book, the "Handbook on MRI Suite Design" whcih we will be releasing this summer. We're also working on different 'sneak peek' opportunities. If you want to be notified about the release of the book and the opportunities to preview sections of it, please click here.
We are also gearing up for our 'world tour' of speaking engagements, including confirmed dates for ISMRM / SMRT, ASRT / ISRRT, and AHRA. Links to each conference website are available below in our 'news bite' section.
And in 2006 the ACR's 'Update and Revisions' to the White Paper on MR Safety will have an unprecidented focus on MRI suite design issues. How do I know this? Because I am both honored and humbled to have been appointed to the ACR's authoring committee and I hope that my insights into facility design issues will help produce guidelines for all designers and facility planners.
And while the forthcoming 2006 edition of the AIA's 'Guidelines for the Design of Hospitals and Healthcare Facilties' won't offer anything new on MRI suite design, the Facility Guidelines Institute may plan to publish supplimental information on planning and design of MRI suites between this upcoming edition and the next.
As always, we hope that you will contact us if you have any questions about anything you read in the newsletter, or if we can be of any assistance to 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
Mark Your Calendars Three Times! So far we have confirmed invitatioins to present to the annual meetings of three groups in 2006, the Society for Magnetic Resonance Technologists, the American Society of Radiologic Technolgists at the 14th World Congress, and two presentations for the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators. Mark your calendars to join us in Seattle in May, then again in Denver in June and again in Las Vegas in August!Click below to be taken to
www.ismrm.org/smrt (annual meeting page)
www.asrt.org (World Congress page)
www.ahraonline.org (conferences page)
MRI Newsletter - Article Archive Is Now On Line!
Don't forget that we now have the archive of previous MRI Newsletter articles available. Click here to see all the articles that are available.
While the archive index is available to everyone, only subscribers will be able to access the full text of the articles, except the published public issues.
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If The Shoe Doesn't Fit, Don't Wear It!:
Pediatric MRI And Suite Templates.
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
We’ve all heard the stories of MRI suites that don’t perform as expected. Dismal failures of function and patient care which undermine patient throughput and safety. In the worst cases they also compromise the clinical value of the MRI equipment, placing the facility at a diagnostic and competitive disadvantage from day one. All too often, the first response to these SNAFU’s is, “But we followed the vendor template exactly.”
But templates don’t address a myriad of facility-specific and patient-specific issues. From interventional procedures, to bariatric patients, and from screening protocols to patient safety issues, templates leave a profound amount up to the facility and their designers. Nowhere is this more true than in a facility with a significant pediatric patient load.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
MRI Suite Cryogen Safety:
Magnet Room Entrapment.
By Tobias Gilk
In recent months there has been a great deal of inquiry about magnet room entrapment in MRI suite design and construction. These questions arise out of cryogen accidents, from the strikingly different ‘typical’ suite templates provided by MRI vendors, and from different cryogen safety designs offered by shield vendors. Assembling a complete picture of cryogen safety issues from these sources is equivalent to trying to put together a handful of pieces from three different puzzles into a single coherent image. While several magnet and shield vendors have developed strategies to minimize these risks, it is easy to apply these fragmented techniques incorrectly and defeat any safety benefit provided.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
MRI Experts, Cost Or Value?
By Tobias Gilk
Many MRI siting projects suffer from acute schizophrenia. Equipment purchase decisions are often a carefully weighed cost-benefit comparison, evaluating such factors as image quality, suitability of applications, service agreements, etc… But, at some point many projects manifest a completely different side. Instead of an analysis of benefits or comparative advantages, the design and construction portion of so many projects boils down a competitive ‘low-bid’ situation.
Not that there aren’t fevered negotiations in the purchase of imaging equipment. And it isn’t as if business sense is completely subservient to the desire of the clinicians, but facilities are too often willing to commit millions of dollars to MRI technology only to turn around and torpedo image quality, patient safety and throughput by hiring under-qualified designers and contractors. It is in this all-too-frequent scenario where we find the real value of MRI expertise illustrated.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Articles In The Works
In the upcoming months we will be sharing articles with you on a number of topics, from tools that are immediately applicable, to strategies that will help your facility on into the future. Several planned upcoming articles include:
- MRI Accident Data: What Every Facility Should Know
- Access Control Devices: Keeping Zone III Secure
- Magnet Room Finishes & Equipment
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.
MRI-Planning
802 Broadway - 5th Floor
Kansas City, MO 54105
816-472-7722
MRI_Expert@MRI-Planning.com
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