MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 CONTACT:     Scott Bryan

August 25, 2009                                                                                              Marketing Director

                                                                                                                                    info@MyRadRoom.com

New Website is First and Only On Line Community

Exclusive to Medical Imaging Professionals

Fort Myers, Fl. – Capitalizing on the tremendous popularity of social networking sites the creators of MyRadRoom.com have developed one dedicated for all levels of medical imaging personnel.

By establishing the site, MyRadRoom.com is creating a unique forum for medical imaging professionals to meet and network. The site provides important information and allows for discussion and exploration of relevant topics with professionals at all levels of medical imaging.  MyRadRoom.com also has venues to ask questions and get answers from professionals who are sharing actual experiences on techniques, procedures and technology.

“We are filling a void.” says Scott Bryan, Marketing Director of MyRadRoom.com.  “This destination is far more than just throwing a few darts at a board.  MyRadRoom.com was developed after we spoke to countless medical imaging professionals including Radiologists, department managers, technologists, and vendors.  Their feedback helped foment the concept and drive us to implement what you will now experience.”

The result, MyRadRoom.com, is a new site that enables visitors to:

·         Read a FREE live news feed that is routinely updated

·         Participate in medical imaging chat rooms to share professional information

·         Easily create blogs and participate in polls specific to the industry

·         Set up a FREE e-meeting in either a public or private setting

·         Use the site for free marketing services

·         Connect with Medical Imaging professionals from across the country

·         Create classified ads and more…

According to Bryan, MyRadRoom.com has one feature that should be attractive to anyone working as a medical imaging professional. “Our survey results told us that our visitors really wanted an unbiased, unvarnished resource where they could go for reliable information on a number of topics like technology, policy and techniques. Now, not only can they get impartial information they need, they can get it easily.” The site also has Virtual Conference, the ability to do live video feed of imaging events, and conferences making them accessible to more of the industry, on a real time basis.

From techs to radiologists, those in the medical imaging profession who visit MyRadRoom.com will find an extensive assortment of free meeting and networking tools designed to enhance their professional lives. In addition to the popular social networking features that drive millions to these sites, visitors will be able to focus on issues that touch their professional as well as personal lives.

“It’s all in response to demand. We have Doctorate level programmers, and skilled creative people hosting this site” said Bryan “and the website will continue to grow and evolve as the visitors do.”

For more information contact Scott Bryan, Marketing Director, at: info@MyRadRoom.com.

Opening Minds to Open MRI

By Greg Thompson
May 2009

How do you acquire the high–field-strength open MRI unit
of your dreams in a tough economy?

Unless you had already
budgeted a cool million before the economy tanked, it may be
difficult. David Nelson, director of outpatient imaging for Bay-
Care Health System, Clearwater, Fla, overcame his lack of
comfort with open systems last year and did just that.
“We get the best of both worlds, and we can accommodate
claustrophobic patients as well as patients
who can’t fit into the closed MRI.We are definitely in
a society where people are getting larger, and I
don’t see that trend slowing down at all.”
-Michael R. Foreman
It was a long time coming, since most
open MRI magnets hovered around the
0.3T–0.7T range—a strength rating that
Nelson believes is less than ideal. Nelson,
who oversees multiple BayCare
Health System locations throughout the
Tampa region, says, “When I first got
here in Florida, there was a 0.3T magnet
on every other street corner. It probably
took me 5 years to change the thought
processes of the local community that
open was not better, especially at the
typical magnet strength. The only option
we had for high-field imaging was a conventional unit. I have
now gone from being the arch enemy of open configurations,
however, to being an advocate of having open units in your
portfolio.”
The debut of the 1.2T magnet ultimately changed Nelson’s
mind, motivating him to allocate precious budget dollars to the
new OASIS™ high-field open MRI from Hitachi, Twinsburg,
Ohio, which is currently the most powerful open system on the
market. Prior to purchasing the unit, BayCare Health System’s
top radiologist went to Cleveland to look at the equipment. At
that time, no OASIS had yet been installed in the United
States. Like Nelson, the radiologist was not a big fan of midstrength
magnets.
The trip went exceedingly well, though, and it wasn’t long before
Bay- Care Health System was on the waiting list for a
July 2009 installation.
The team at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, Howell,
Mich, got on the bandwagon in September 2008, in a move
that has already led to almost 2,000 successful scans using
the new unit. Erin Butler, RTR, is MRI service delivery leader
at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, a system with 30 facilities
and 13,000 employees. She says, “We are now able to
serve a patient population that we could not in the past, and
we are doing that. Rather than having to reschedule patients,
we are now able to proceed within our own facility.”
Many MRI veterans have endured the embarrassing task
of telling obese patients that closed, conventional MRI
units are just not adequate. For the most part, open systems
eliminate this problem. “Sometimes, when patients and even
physicians hear open, they anticipate wide open,” Butler
warns, “but these magnets, regardless of the field strength,
have a top and a bottom, so there are still some criteria for
being able to fit between the top and the bottom.”
Fortunately, these limitations are rarely a concern, and the
open unit is usually perfect for obese or claustrophobic patients.
“We get the best of both worlds, and we can accommodate
claustrophobic patients as well as patients who can’t
fit into the closed MRI,” Michael R. Foreman, MRI manager at
Lakeshore Bone and Joint Institute, a private facility in Chesterton,
Ind, explains. “We are definitely in a society where
people are larger, and I don’t see that trend slowing
down at all.”
According to Jim Knauf, business line
leader at Saint Joseph Mercy Health
System, his department has been able
to accommodate a patient weighing
nearly 272 kg (600pounds) on the OASIS
with little difficulty. “We would never
have been able to scan this patient
prior to having the new open MRI unit,”
Knauf says.