Picture Your Future

The full body scan is an important medical tool for diagnosing and preventing disease. However, there are known to be radiation risks which are of concern to those people getting a total body scan. Doctors and their patients must carefully weigh the risk of radiation exposure with the risk of undetected disease when determining whether or not a full body scan is in the best interest of the patient.

One recent study assessed the overall risk to the adult patient when getting a full body PET/CT scan. The study showed that there was less than a two percent cancer incidence caused by the use of the full body scan. This is considered to be a risk that is minimal but one that patients should be aware of when getting a full body scan.

In many cases, the patient may seek to avoid the risk by using different types of imaging other than the full body scan. A qualified preventive imaging doctor can advise the patient as to which areas of the body should be screened for maintaining optimum health while keeping radiation exposure low.

Question of the Day: How would you make the decision about whether or not to risk radiation exposure in order to prevent disease?

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As medical technology gets more and more advanced, we are going to be able to leave a lot of the hard work to the machines and allow medical technicians to engage in more attentive care to their patients. However, the machines are only going to be as good as the people using them can make them be. In other words, technicians who want to rely on medical equipment for tests like preventive imaging are going to need to make sure that they have the skills necessary for this equipment to be properly used.

One area where we are seeing an example of this is in the growing use of computer radiography and digital radiography equipment in hospitals and other medical facilities. One study has shown that there were a significant number of problems in the mis-use of this technology. One major problem was that poor positioning of patients led to an inability of the computer to properly read the image. The images were therefore rejected. A technician with experience in the proper placement of the patient could have avoided this problem and the machine would have worked as it was supposed to.

Question of the Day: How is advanced technology limited by the human factor in the medical equation?

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The MRI is a terrific imaging tool that is able to provide important diagnostic information to doctors and their patients. Unfortunately, most patients don't like getting the MRI scan. It's not a painful procedure but it's one that requires holding still for long periods of time which can be uncomfortable for some patients, especially those who are in a position to be particularly worried about the results of the exam. New advances in the technology have now been made which may speed up the process and make it much more efficient and easy on patients.

The new technology is fairly complex but it boils down to changes in the way that the imaging process takes place. It relies on changes in temperature which ultimately allows for a much stronger signal to take place which means that imaging can occur at a significantly faster pace than before without compromising the quality of the images. To do so this, the standard MRI technology has been combined with a related field of technology (nuclear magnetic resonance, NMR) to develop a new machine.

Learn more here.

Question of the Day: Would you be more comfortable getting an MRI scan if you knew the process would be a quick one?

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Colon cancer is one of the leading killers of people around the world so it's of utmost importance that care is given to both the prevention and treatment of this disease. It has been found over time that it is possible to use minimally inviasve procedures in both prevention and treatment to increase the comfort of the patient without compromising the patient's health.

In terms of prevention, there has been a big shift around the world from the use of traditional colonscopy for screening to the less-invasive procedure of virtual colonoscopy. This has been beneficial in multiple ways, not the least of which has been that more people are willing to get the necessary screening as a direct result of the fact that the virtual colonscopy is considerably more comfortable for the patient.

In terms of treatment, it has recently been found that it is possible to use less invasive forms of surgery to eliminate the tumors associated with colon cancer. In the past there had been concern that less invasive procedures posed long-term risks to the patients but new data reveals that this is not the case.

Question of the Day: Do minimally invasive procedures make you more interested in getting tested for the presence of colon cancer?

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One of the things that you frequently hear complained about in America is that the actions taken by legislators don't reflect the true needs of the people in America today. This sentiment has been heard echoed in the preventive health industry as the budget for radiology imaging has been cut again and again over the years. However, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to complain about the problem. According to the American College of Radiology, it makes a lot more sense to work on educating legislators about the issue so that they have motivation to take action.

That was precisely the topic at this week's Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) meeting. People in the industry who are specifically working on educating Congress about the importance of continued funding for radiology spoke about their experiences in providing this education. They revealed statistics that seem to indicate that Congress is listening to what they have to say. This bodes well for the future funding and development of additional preventive health care throughout the nation.

Learn more here.

Question of the Day: Who has the responsibility of educating legislators about the importance of imaging technology?

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Those people who have reason to get a coronary angiography (or CT angiography) should also think about getting a bone density scan. Likewise, those people who shows signs of osteoporosis may want to ask their doctors about getting a CT Angiography to check for coronary artery disease. That's because a new study reveals that there appears to be a correlation between the existence of obstructive coronary artery disease and the existence of signs of osteoporosis.

It is unclear to researchers why there would be a correlation between these two diseases. They have reviewed the use of common medications, such as hormone replacement therapy, and have not found that to be a factor in this correlation. Additional studies will need to be completed before doctors are able to determine what the link is here. However, it's something to be aware of as a patient (or as a medical practitioner) in order to be able to get the screening you need to keep yourself safe from both types of disease.

Learn more here.

Question of the Day: Would you be more inclined to get a bone density scan first or a CT Angiography first?

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One of the most important preventive imaging tests that is regularly done is the screening for colon cancer. And one of the most useful innovations was the development of the virtual colonoscopy which made this screening more efficient and easier on the patient, thereby increasing the likelihood that patients will get this testing done. The next step is to make the virtual colonoscopy even more effective, a step which requires developing and improving the computer-aided detection (CAD) software which is used

CAD software is used to assist the doctor in confirming his diagnosis. The computer scans and assess digital images in order to highlight and emphasize certain areas in the scan. The doctor can use this information to double-check his or her initial assessment of the testing. CAD software is a relatively new technology which is still being improved.

A new study shows that CAD software can indeed be very helpful to the doctor who is studying virtual colonoscopy scans. The study revealed that the CAD technology was capable of studying both cleansed and uncleansed, tagged and untagged images in order to determine if there were cancerous polyps in the image. The software isn't perfect; there were more false positives than doctors would like to see. However it's a good step in the right direction for using computer imaging to support a doctor's analysis.

Question of the Day: In what other imaging procedures do you believe CAD software is most useful?

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One of the most common preventive imaging scans that is done is the bone density scan, a procedure which allows people to check for early warnings signs of osteoporosis in order to prevent this disease of aging that plagues such a great percentage of the population. Those scans may now be assisted by additional potential screening made possible by the identification of two different genes related to osteoporosis.

Two different proteins have been identified in the body that are likely to indicate risk of osteoporosis if they are both present in the body at the same time. This was the case for twenty percent of the population studied by researchers who were reviewing the genes related to osteoporosis.

The authors say: "These alleles can be measured with near-perfect precision and without bias years before the age at which fractures tend to occur - which could provide ample lead-time for preventive measures. Eventually, a panel of genetic markers could be used in addition to environmental risk factors to identify individuals who are most at risk for osteoporotic fractures." (source)

This would not be a replacement for the bone density scan but instead would be a supplemental tool used for better preventive health as people begin to age into the years during which osteoporosis becomes a serious issue.

Question of the Day: What do you see as the best methods of preventing osteoporosis?

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An interesting new study reveals the frightening fact that many women believe that they have had preventive health screening which they probably didn't actually have done. The study discovered that a significant number of black women believe that they have had screening in the past for breast cancer, cervical cancer and colon cancer. Their medical records indicate that they did not have this kind of screening.

There are several issues of concern resulting from this study. They include:

- The possibility that these women did not understand the medical procedures that were taking place at the time that they believed they were getting health screening.

- The possibility that a significant number of medical records are inaccurate for this population.

- The possibility that these women are failing to prevent disease as a result of the fact that they believe they are getting screening that isn't taking place or isn't being properly recorded.

It is important for all patients to make sure that they know what is going on during their annual doctor exams. It is also important to make sure to keep your own accurate medical records of all procedures that have taken place.

Learn more here.

Question of the Day: What do you think is causing the discrepancy between memory and reality in these preventive screening cases?

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One of the major disparities that we've seen in the use of imaging procedures is that it's a medical tool used primarily in more afflluent areas. Although the gap has gone down in America (both low-income and high-income Americans now have access to imaging technology), it remains large when looking at the global landscape. However, researchers at UC Berkeley might have found a solution to closing that gap.

Most third world countries do not have access to the important medical imaging which could assist them in early diagnosis and prevention of disease. There have been programs implemented in the past to donate medical imaging equipment to these countries. However, the cost of upkeep and repair of the equipment has made those efforts fruitless in the long run.

UC Berkeley researchers say that there is an alternative. Cell phones can be used by doctors in these countries to allow them to receive imaging information.

"Cell phones, after collecting data from a data acquisition device, can be used to upload raw data to the hub that will be converted into an image. The cell phone would then act as a display after the server sends the image back to it."

Third world cell phones are increasingly common so it is feasible to think that this technology could work. Learn more about it here.

Question of the Day: Does the cell phone as a medical imaging tool sound like it makes sense for bringing preventive care to third world countries?

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