Medically Imaging the Body with Magnetics and Radiofrequency Waves with an MRI

There are many factors to why appointments are delayed or re-scheduled that are beyond the structuring of time, however, there are some ideas that can help ease the annoyance of having to wait. The best thing to address is making sure the patient feels comfortable. Keep people abreast of the wait time and what’s going on. People understand things happen. However, they don’t want to feel forgotten. Some doctor’s offices have grasped the ideas of distraction, provide TV with news and valuable information, brochures and literature read, even hiring nurses or

One reason some offices run continuously late is the doctor trys to see to many patients on a given day.Moreso, when this happens the payient dosen’t get the attention thay require from the physician.Running patient through

Rodak, S. (2012) How Cleveland Clinic Reduced Cancer Patients' Wait Times by More Than 80%. Becker's Hospital Review. 26 Sept 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/capacity-management/how-cleveland-clinic-reduced-cancer-patients-wait-times-by-more-than-80.html

In addition to the mile-long waiting lists, the idealism of universal health care has also left Canada with problems, one problem being, having basic technology and machinery, when it could be advanced. Although Canada is the fifth highest among OECD countries in terms of total spending on health, it is generally among the bottom third of OECD countries in availability of technology.7 The local comparison is equally unfavourable. CT scanners, nuclear medicine facilities, MRIs, lithotriptors, positron emission tomography, specialized intensive-care facilities, and cardiac catheter labs are all less likely to be found at a community hospital in Canada than at a similar hospital in the United States. Angioplasty and transplant facilities

Given the MRI should be the bottleneck; the other resources must have protective capacity. This means adding enough of everything with cycle times longer than the MRI machine – for sure an extra MR technician. The role of non-bottlenecks is to protect the ability of the bottleneck to operate at full utilization.

Rosen says that in his field of pediatric rheumatology the ratio of patients to doctors is one of the aspects that contribute to long wait times. “In my field, pediatric rheumatology, there are little more than 300 doctors in the field in North America. Wait times for appointments can run up to four months” (Rosen, 2015). However, he and his fellow physicians, knowing that there is always room for improvement went on a mission to decrease patient wait time from one month to 72 hours. Using resources, techniques, and the unified goal of putting patient access as a top priority, Dr. Rosen and his team were able to set up a four year plan. In this plan, patients were being seen on first-come-first-served

I found it quite interesting that you mentioned Dr. Changs idea to help patients be treated more efficiently and effectively. Individual waiting in the waiting room is definitely an issue, and will continue to be a problem

Magnetic resonance imaging has the potential of totally replacing computed tomography. If history was rewritten, and CT invented after MRI, nobody would bother to pursue CT. --Philip Drew (Mattson and Simon, 1996)

Since the introduction of the magnetic resonance imaging unit, diagnostic medicine has flourished. The ability to see different pathologies in a detailed soft tissue image has helped guide doctors in providing patients with better treatment and therefore a better prognosis. In many cases, magnetic resonance imaging is the golden standard in diagnostic studies. This is especially true when studying blood vessels. The majority of doctors turn to a magnetic resonance angiography(MRA) method called bright blood imaging when they are concerned with any blood flowing vessels. A few main areas of concern include vessels in the brain, neck, thoracic, abdominal aorta, renals, and vessels in the legs called a “run off”. When doctors order an MRA using bright blood imaging they want to rule out serious pathologies such as aneurysms, aorta dissection, or stenosis. Bright blood imaging uses a strong magnetic field and specific pulse sequences. Below we will discuss three different techniques and their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

These new forms of magnetic resonance imaging machines have made scans more comfortable as well as more achievable in some cases which the patient cannot lay in a traditional MRI machine. Open magnetic resonance scanners use a low field magnet so they do not create a very high quality image which can make their scans hard to diagnose (Shalen, 2002). Although these machines don’t create as high quality of images as traditional tunnel MRI machines, it may be the only machine tolerable for some patients as stated by Shalen (2012). Recently a MRI machine which combines the comfort of an open MRI with the accuracy and diagnostic quality of a traditional machine; this was achieved with a short bore MRI machine (Shalen, 2002). Shalen (2002) discusses how these short bore magnetic resonance scanners tend to be less more comfortable for patients in pain and more tolerable for patients who suffer from claustrophobia due to their shorter bore size and the less time needed for each exam due to the high field magnets.

In simple terms, medical imaging uses machines to send magnetic sound or radio waves that goes through the body and bounces back from the metal that surrounds your back while undergoing this procedure. The waves are then measured by the rate they travel back to their origin. This ends up creating a picture based off the timing of the returning waves (Medical Imaging). Imaging technology is extremely beneficial in the medical field because it allows us to observe the body without cutting it open (Inverse Problems and Biomedical Imaging). Medical imaging is used for radiology, nuclear medicine, and optical imaging (VUMC). We are able to discover any discomfort or change in the body with these fields available and can tackle the issue immediately. With the help of medical imaging, doctors and physicians can identify the type and stage of the disease, treat it precisely, follow up with therapy and continuous treatment. This gives the patient greater opportunity to be treated and healed at an incredible pace. Although the medical imaging procedure gives us precise answers, it does not provide us with the source of the

As can be seen in Table 1 below, the resources causing the long wait times are those that are over utilized, or those that show capacity utilizations greater than 100 percent. The only over utilized resource are the Physicians, who are being over utilized by 21 percent. The other major resources are still underutilized.

Q1: Discuss the major reasons for long wait times in emergency rooms, hospitals, and walk-in clinics? [300- 400 words].

In 1976, science and medicine effectively crossed paths to create the full-body magnetic resonance scanner. This groundbreaking invention, completed by Dr. Raymond Damadian, turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine. Dr. Damadian’s scanner applied the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance to the human body for the first time, in order to detect cancerous cells in the body without the use of X-rays or surgery. Dr. Damadian’s first full-body scanner, named “Indomitable”, gave rise to the practice of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in all fields of medicine. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, which is often simply referred to as magnetic resonance imaging due to the negative connotations that are associated with “nuclear” (Kleinfield 224), uses a technique in which atoms absorb magnetic waves and then subsequently emit specific frequencies of waves that can be used to create images (Edelson). Dr. Damadian formulated the controversial idea of applying NMR to the human body at a much larger scale than ever before based on prior research that indicated that cancerous cells emit noticeably different levels of radiation than normal cells do.

MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging and it is a scanner which uses magnetism to see the position of hydrogen atoms in water molecules inside the body. This will allow it to build up an image of the internal structures. Quality of information is very high and it does not require any ionising radiation. Radiofrequency is not higher than normal radio, so no concerns about electromagnetic waves. Magnetic field used is 100 times stronger than Earths’. The scan takes 45 minutes and it is not