Sensible Solutions for Refurbished Radiology

All medical imaging systems are created equal, right?

Wrong.  

As any radiologist, rad tech or medical equipment purchasing agent knows, different manufacturers have different strengths. Some may offer better purchase prices, while others have a stronger warranty or lower service costs.

Delivering Better Outcomes By Using Quantitative Imaging Analytics

We are now living in a digital age. It’s an era of decisions and outcomes driven by data and analytics. This insight into the numbers and trends that influence everything we do has become a critical success factor in every industry around the world. For professionals working in the world of healthcare, it has become an invaluable tool for helping not just individual patients but entire populations live healthier lives and reach positive outcomes. Big data has also become a catalyst for improving workflow and the very procedures that are essential to the entire healthcare industry.

It’s an exciting time in healthcare, as it seems like every day there’s new technology that improves diagnosis, treatment or recovery. We’re especially excited to read about a new 3D imaging technique developed by researchers from Cambridge University in the UK. It’s destined to provide enormous improvements for evaluating changes in joint disease. And it couldn’t come at a better time, as Baby Boomers face the ultimate badge of aging—sore and creaky joints.

In the constantly evolving world of healthcare and medical imaging, what’s new today could be in need of an upgrade tomorrow. It’s a challenge many hospitals and radiology offices face as they attempt to keep up with advancing technology. It’s also a primary consideration when hospitals and clinics decide to replace or update their existing equipment. When budgets are tight, many administrators must carefully decide whether the current equipment is negatively affecting patient outcomes or preventing the staff from making accurate diagnoses. It is a far too common assessment that can lead to older pieces of equipment remaining in use because they meet the minimum requirements.

For anyone who’s ever used or benefitted from the use of an MRI, we need to tip our hats to the experts at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. After all, that’s where the first clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine was built and used to scan a human 35 years ago. And now it looks like the experts at the university are developing a new method of MRI which will provide significantly more detailed information about osteoarthritis, cancer, dementia and other diseases.

In hospitals and clinics around the world Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is relied on to provide an unmatched level of image quality. The MRI is used to view and diagnose complex injuries and diseases within the human body and plays a vital role in treatment of patients the world over. Its importance to the future of medicine is paramount, and while its usefulness is without question, the MRI scanner does have its drawbacks.

If you’ve ever had an MRI Coil failure, you know it’s your basic nightmare. After all, unless you’ve got a spare around, it usually results in canceled procedures, patient rescheduling, potentially delayed diagnosis, increased work for your staff and a lot of grumbling! And the revenues lost? When you factor in lost revenues and the cost of replacing and repairing a failed MRI coil, it can add up to $3,200+ every day it’s out of commission!

It’s been all over the news: Toshiba has admitted it overstated profit by more than ¥150 billion in the past seven years and is now looking for buyers in order to stem its downward spiral. While wanting to keep its mainstay memory-chip and nuclear power businesses, Toshiba plans to dump its medical imaging division and lay off nearly 7,000 workers.

It seems like every time we turn on the news, we hear about another company that’s had its information hacked. So just how secure is the information about your patients? And how easy is it to hack into a medical system like an MRI?

Over the last 50 years medical imaging has repeatedly transformed medicine. X-Ray, MRI, DXA and CT Scans have changed how physicians measure, manage, diagnose, treat, and even think about medical illnesses and conditions. Technological innovations have also made imaging faster, more precise and less invasive to use. In fact, medical imaging is such an essential part of health care practice today that it often becomes the standard preliminary step for diagnosing virtually all major medical conditions and diseases. In some cases medical imaging itself is even being used to treat, manage and predict disease.