Julie Morse's Blog (82)

New super charged MRI technology is being implemented in London hospitals that could expedite scanning and treatment for diseases in the heart and brain. The 3 Tesla Prisma, scheduled to be operational next month, is turbo charged with supplementary Siemens software that will enhance MRI processing power. According to the Express, the 3 Tesla Prisma can produce scans for around 6,000 patients a year.

Tesla (T) is not…

Children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults. According to research from the University of Melbourne, CT scans can exponentially increase a child’s rate of developing cancer. In conjunction with the World Congress of Public Health, the university is revising 2013 data that found children who had undergone CT scans had a 24 percent higher risk of developing cancer than those who…

A significant portion of the aging population relies on pacemakers or implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) to lead healthy lives. In the past, MRI use for those folks who depend on these cardiac electronic devices was deemed unsafe, as the technology could trigger cardiac injury. However, emerging research has found zero risk for patients with pacemakers and…

Animals at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago are getting world-class radiology care. Last summer, La Grange Memorial and Hinsdale hospitals donated their 16-slice CT scanner to the zoo, one of the largest scanners in existence.

Both hospitals…

X-rays have more in common with our eyes than you might think. When X-rays are maneuvered with advanced mirrors and other visual tools, abnormalities can seep in. These issues are akin to vision problems such as astigmatism, coma, and refractive errors. Just like optometrists can prescribe their patients corrective lenses for their vision conditions, a team of…

The new administration has impacted higher education in unanticipated ways, and universities across the country are experiencing unusually low rates of international applicants. For example, 40 percent of 250 colleges across the country have observed a decrease in applications from international students. The demographics of…

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians and Peruvians would mummify the dead as a way to honor them and prepare them for the afterlife. For centuries, scientists were stumped as to how to examine mummies and their physical properties without unwrapping the body. Yet, in the decade, researchers at both the Field Museum in Chicago and the American Museum of National History have been using…

Virtual reality and the medical industry have joined forces once again. Microsoft Hololens, the mixed reality headset that projects comprehensive and accurate depictions of the body’s anatomy, has teamed up with Novarad, a medical imaging software company to develop 3D holograms of MRI scans, CT scans, and x-rays.

Hololens made headlines back in 2015…

Is space just a crazy vacuum that causes our bodies to age quickly and our bones to crumble? According to Thomas Lang, MD, professor at the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and associate dean of research at the School of Dentistry at University of California San Francisco, space travel takes a toll on an astronaut’s skeletal health, especially…

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) set a new record with highest number of students paired with resident positions in history this year. Match Day is the nerve-wracking and exciting day in March when fourth-year med students find out where they will spend the next three to seven years training in their specialty.

This year, 35,969 U.S. and international medical students applied for 31,757 residencies across the…

The science behind self-driving cars seems to have found a purpose in radiology. A group of interventional radiologists at University of California, Los Angeles are using a chat application to streamline and speed-up diagnosis and treatment decisions. This innovative use of artificial intelligence ultimately improves patient-doctor communication by utilizing a variety of programs, infographics, and pre-designed responses to relay information to between doctors and patients…

Gender inequality in medicine is a long-standing issue that demands the need for change. As we’ve reported previously, the gender gap prevails in academic radiology, however some institutions are experiencing a sea change. According to a recent study published in Radiology, despite the fact that men represent 71.5…

Cardiac imaging is in need of some wrangling. Professional medical associations and universities across the U.S. have developed appropriate use criteria (AUC) for physicians when determining if a patient should go through cardiac testing. However, a group of physicians believe that the AUC “is no longer an idealistic exercise” and a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved technique will soon be required when evaluating a patient’s need for imaging…

Radiologists who are neat-freaks should give yourself a pat on the back. A new study from Harvard Medical School found that the cleanliness and receptionist’s demeanor heavily influences a patient’s perception of the radiology department.

A team of researchers led by Johannes Boos analyzed surveys from 4,938 of the…

A phony radiology clinic in Kissimmee, Florida was busted after six years of conducting unlicensed mammography procedures. Alba Garcia and Oscar Alzate, the owners of Digital Radiology Center, Inc. and Medisound, Inc., clinics, were recently charged with Medicaid fraud and running an unlicensed clinic. The two are now serving three-year prison terms for billing Medicaid for $180,000 worth of fabricated radiology…

Scotland seems to have a burgeoning healthcare crisis on its hands. The Scottish National Party (SNP) is being held accountable for mismanaging the country’s healthcare system by failing to sufficiently train radiologists and neglecting to adequately staff hospitals with physicians.

According to the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), patients’ health is at risk due to wide-spread physician vacancies, scarcity…

New Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has introduced a new radiology-centric healthcare initiative that will enable all of the city’s residents to access free radiology tests. The action is apart of a wave of legislation to increase government spending in both healthcare and public education sectors.  

In the last two years, the AAP has doubled Delhi’s education budget and grown its healthcare funds by one and a…

Anyone who saw a radiologist recently in northwestern British Columbia might want to get a second opinion. Turns out, between October 2016 and January 2017, thousands of x-ray, CT scans, and ultrasounds may have been incorrectly analyzed at Terrace Mills Memorial Hospital.

On January 25, physicians realized that an x-ray was read improperly. The discovery prompted the facility to re-examine all of the images the…

 Pregnancy incites changes in the body — that’s common knowledge. But did you know that being pregnant also has serious repercussions on the brain? A first-of-its-kind study has found that there’s a symmetrical reduction in the brain’s grey matter during pregnancy in the medial frontal, posterior cortex, and certain sections of the prefrontal and temporal cortex.

The researchers from the Universitat…

At the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, Watson Health introduced IBM Watson Imaging Clinical Review, a cognitive “peer-review” resource that eliminates discrepancies between a patient’s clinical diagnosis and administrative records. The new system streamlines reports and ultimately improves the accuracy in a patient’s record.…