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Joel Coffey, Radiology Director |
What’s Causing That
Pain In Your Back? –
Joel Coffey,
Radiology Director
What’s causing that pain in your back? You head to your doctor to
find an answer to that question. Your doctor examines you and can see
no obvious reason for the pain. He or she then orders x-rays of your
lumbar spine. That’s were we come in. We are the Radiology
Department at I-70 Medical Center. Doctors use us to see what’s going
on inside of you. Radiology could be considered an art. Our
“paintbrush” is radiation. The quality and quantity of the radiation
beam are controlled by the technologist. The quality of the radiation
beam determines how well it penetrates tissue. It would be our gray
“paint”. The quantity of the radiation beam determines the amount of
radiation used. It would be our black and white “paint”. Our
“canvas” is the 14”x17” cassette that captures the radiation to
produce the image. You might think this would be a snap to do. Try
and guess where you put your 14”x17” cassette to capture an image of
all 5 lumbar vertebrae. You can’t see through your patient until
after taking the x-ray. Through our training we learn to guess how to
get the image we want from the patient. Radiology is not an exact
science because no one can take a group of people and x-ray them to
see what techniques work best on certain body types. We know
radiation is damaging to cells. That’s why the Radiology Technologist
must go through rigorous training on how to obtain quality images
using as little radiation as possible. If you get a poor quality
image when using film, your only option is to take another x-ray
exposing that patient to more radiation. With the advancement of
technology there is now another option. Digital radiology uses
computers to produce and store the image. The image can then be
manipulated if needed to make a less-than-perfect image usable for the
radiologist to achieve a diagnosis.
At I-70 Medical Center we are completely digital. All the x-rays, CAT
scans, MRI’s, and ultrasounds we’ve ever done are stored on our
computer. We send these exams via the internet to Radiologists in the
Kansas City area who interpret them for us. They send those results
to us and we send them to your doctor. If your doctor would like to
see your exam for himself, we can burn it to a CD and mail it to him
or you could take it there yourself on your next visit. The CD’s are
small and convenient to carry and they need not be returned to the
hospital unlike films. The doctor can manipulate the images on the CD
to enhance his view of the anatomy displayed. With films you’re stuck
with the image you have. If the image is too dark or too light, the
doctor has no way to enhance them. Sometimes magnification is needed
to view fine details. Even with a good quality image on film, when
it’s placed under magnification, the detail is compromised by the
“graininess” of the film. With our CD’s, the doctor can manipulate
the contrast of the image to suit him. He can also magnify the image
without compromise of image quality. The computer adjusts the image
for the magnified view so there is no “graininess”. These CD’s can be
used on any computer. For those few doctors that still insist on
films, we are able to print the images on film. We are fortunate to
have such advanced technology. It’s a wonderful convenience for our
patients and provides them with a higher level of care than many
larger facilities offer. We are able to do x-rays and CAT scans on
demand. We also have a mobile MRI service that comes every Wednesday,
Ultrasound that comes every Tuesday and Thursday, a screening
mammography van that comes once a month, an orthopedic doctor that
comes every other Tuesday, and we are currently checking into a
company that offers cardiac ultrasounds. We continue to look for
ways we can better serve our patients and offer them the best medical
service available. |
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