Dear AuntMinnie Member,
News is coming in on the devastation caused by the massive January 12 earthquake in Haiti. As rescue workers scramble to pull victims out of the rubble, nonprofit groups in medical imaging are already trying to assess how radiology can help. We hope to bring you their stories in the coming weeks.
Until then, we urge AuntMinnie members to contribute to relief efforts in the country. Click here for a list of charitable organizations that are active in Haiti. And also click here for an AuntMinnie anniversary story from 2001 on the state of medical practice and radiology in Haiti at the time by a radiologist who spent two weeks there.
RTs win $2.8M lawsuit
In other news, a report in our Digital X-Ray Community highlights one of the benefits of installing digital x-ray technology -- no more employee exposure to film chemicals.
Three radiologic technologists (RTs) from New Jersey successfully sued an x-ray distribution and servicing firm that they claimed performed a faulty installation of a medical film printer. The RTs said the printer was not vented properly, resulting in their exposure to film chemicals, which they blamed for causing a variety of respiratory illnesses. Learn more by clicking here.
Also in x-ray, a new study explores whether current guidelines for spacing out incubators in hospital neonatal intensive care units are adequate for protecting premature infants from scatter radiation during mobile radiography studies. That story is available here or by visiting the community at xray.auntminnie.com.
Tips for setting up a 3D lab
Finally, if you're one of the many imaging practices that has been successfully using advanced visualization software, you might want to consider taking the next step and setting up a dedicated 3D lab. That's according to an article by senior editor Erik L. Ridley in our Advanced Visualization Digital Community.
In the story, Dr. Eliot Siegel of the University of Maryland describes the benefits to setting up a dedicated 3D lab, in which technologists trained in advanced visualization do most of the 3D processing, rather than radiologists or general imaging RTs.
While dedicated 3D labs can have advantages from both clinical and workflow perspectives, they do come with pitfalls -- find out how to avoid them by clicking here, or visit the community at av.auntminnie.com.
