Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Chances are you've seen it dozens of times at your imaging facility: a child deathly afraid of undergoing an MRI scan. The main solution is to sedate the child, but radiologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital thought there had to be a better way.
The NewYork-Presbyterian team, led by radiologist Dr. Robert Min, helped develop the MRI Heroes Kit, a program designed to allay children's fears of imposing MRI magnets. The kit includes DVDs, plush toys, and a toy scanner model, as well as a specially written Captain America comic book in which the superhero must undergo his own MRI scan for an injured shoulder.
The kits are available commercially through Siemens Healthcare, and they already seem to be having an effect. Learn more by clicking here for an article in our MRI Community, or visit mri.auntminnie.com.
Radiology in India
In other news, the annual Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) meeting just wrapped up, and our roving correspondent Dr. Saurabh Jha was on hand for the proceedings.
Dr. Jha spoke with a number of luminaries representing Indian radiology at IRIA 2015, including Dr. Bhavin Jankharia, perhaps the foremost private-practice radiologist in the country. In a fascinating Q&A article, Dr. Jankharia discusses the pressures of running one's own imaging practice in a nation where there is little public or even private health insurance.
Some of the market forces shaping Indian radiology are remarkably similar to those in the U.S. For example, advanced technology is frequently used by imaging facilities as a selling point to attract patient referrals. But other forces are radically different, such as the fact that it's legal to pay physicians for referrals (although it is considered ethically questionable).
Learn more about radiology in the world's most populous democracy by clicking here.
Fine-tuning CAD for x-ray
Finally, visit our Advanced Visualization Community for an article on how Dutch researchers developed a technique for improving the performance of computer-aided detection (CAD) software in chest x-rays.
They sought to counter a phenomenon in which the performance of CAD algorithms varies widely due to image data being produced with different exposure settings and different kinds of digital x-ray systems. Their technique essentially "normalizes" data, and in a clinical study they found that the technique improved sensitivity for three different radiography systems.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit the community at av.auntminnie.com.
