iRADiX

Did you identify any training needs for yourself in this exercise of reflecting on scanning protocols ? In previous entry we saw some issues relating to abdomen imaging.

As we jogged down the different systems we identified other areas where people are hesitant.

In our practice of Radiology, and especially in another country where the radiology services are quite not at par, we are under pressure to teach the fellow colleagues.

A ‘consultant’ is seen as a source of ‘new’ information and fellow medical colleagues are attracted like ‘bees’.

Often the situation becomes difficult to handle as in the case of my friend JS, who was travelling for the first time out of country to work in a new place. The pressure to teach on him was so overbearing that he succumbed to it and resigned from his job.

How should we deal with ‘pressure at work’?

Pressure can come from different quarters. It could just be ‘work pressure’, ‘peer pressure’ or pressure from the boss!

To what extent Individual beliefs and practices based on one’s religion can be acceptable especially when the life of the individual is in danger or the person in question needs immediate Hospital admission and attention? Are these beliefs and practices interfering with timely medical diagnosis and treatment?

If the patient refuses Medical advice on religious grounds, are doctors subjected to liability?

Situation 1

Patient A came with severe abdominal pain .He was vomiting continuously and screaming with pain, making fellow patients in the Reception area restless. He was accompanied by four attendants, adding to the confusion and chaos, (by their constant shouting and questioning why the delay in taking the patient in for scanning, and that doctors are heartless souls etc,).

I was already doing scan on x and rest of the rooms were also occupied by the patients and Assistants attending on them.

Suddenly there was commotion in the Front Office with lots of shouting as if the patient is going to die in the centre itself, if the scan was not done immediately.

For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be:

what is once well done is done forever.

Henry Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

The G7-G8 group of countries named “Lifelong learning” as a main strategy against unemployment. Having worked in the international “Global-work place” in a private corporate set-up and seen many “corporate-cruelties” in the name of “nothing-personal-just-business” one of the survival strategies is to have dedicated working groups.

A performance agreement

I will try to make you a technologist, and not remain a technician all your life.

Focal liver lesions pose a diagnostic challenge to radiologist and clinician alike. Many focal liver lesions remain undiscovered throughout the patients’ life only to be discovered on autopsy.

Most focal liver lesions are incidental findings, especially at ultrasound examinations performed as part of the follow-up of tumor patients or in screening programs for liver cirrhosis.

How many of our colleagues in India use contrast-enhanced ultrasound or diffusion weighted MRI for characterization of liver lesions? And what about the cost?

What comes after ultrasound?

The quality of ultrasound findings varies with the experience of the examiner and the quality of equipment. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound is generally the preserve of specialized centres. In this situation, according to the EASL Barcelona guidelines, a triphasic CT scan or contrast-enhanced dynamic MRI scan should also be performed before the lesion can be characterized.