What Not to Wear in Healthcare

Picture this: you’re sitting in a waiting room. You’re anxious, sick, and uneasy, and a medical professional asks you to come to the back. How does what they are wearing affect your mood? Will they be able to put your mind at ease or make you even more nervous?

A rising trend today is self-expression in your profession. But when attempting to be stylish, many medical professionals are neglecting the perception of the patients.

Everything You Need to Know About Chuck Norris's Dropped Lawsuit

In 2017 Chuck Norris filed suit against Bracco Industries, claiming the contrast agent, Gadolinium, left his wife, Gena, with intense pain and a burning sensation. Bracco released a statement January 16, 2020, saying they were “pleased to announce that the lawsuit filed by Chuck and Gena Norris… has been voluntarily dismissed.” (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/voluntary-dismissal-of-norris-case-300988404.html) After a 3-year legal battle with Bracco Industries and several other manufacturers of Gadolinium, the pair has pulled their lawsuit. They were seeking more than $10 million in damages. Neither side has received any settlement, and both parties have decided to pay their own court costs.

Walmart Adds Imaging Services to Second Super Center

Walmart’s first super center for health care services opened September 13, 2019 in Dallas, Georgia. This new “Walmart Health” center is 10,000 square feet and provides medical, dental, optometry, behavioral health services, lab testing, X-rays, EKG, hearing and wellness education. Other Walmart stores have smaller (1500 square foot) “Care Clinics” with more limited services in cities in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.

My questions from my 30+ years as a radiographer: How comfortable would you be going to Walmart if you thought you had pneumonia or a broken bone? Will the radiographs be interpreted by a Radiologist, or whom? Will the person taking my X-ray be ARRT registered, or not? Georgia is a no licensure state.

Hats Off to MRI Safety Personnel

Although MRI has never been my specialty, I am a member of a MRI Safety group on Facebook and receive posts from them on a daily basis. The group requires approval for membership and the administrator is Tobias Gilk. Unlike many other groups/pages I belong to within the radiology community, I find that this group is the most helpful to the community members. The members reach out to one another for problem and scenario solving. Experts weigh in on many of the problems to provide answers to questions or to provide references to answer the questions.

AHEC Instructor Highlight

Jorge Casanas, M.Ed.,RT(R)(CV)(QM) is coming to Houston and bringing his passion for teaching with him! Jorge has unique insight into the profession of medical imaging, and readily shares his knowledge in articles and lectures. He is actively involved in various professional societies, and has won several awards for his work in radiography. Jorge has multiple publications to his credit, and his clinical experience in the day-to-day operations of a radiology department makes his course work useful and down to earth.

Join us on Sat., April 4^th, 2020 for 8 hours of CE fun at, Skills for the Savvy Tech. This class will be hosted at AHEC corporate office in Houston or if you aren’t local you can attend via webinar. Course topics will include: Quality Management Update, Film Critique and Pathology and Radiographic Quality Old and New. Click here to learn more about this class and register today!

February Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Students in AHEC's Hands-on Lab.

Say hi to Ben and Steven! They’re getting some great training from Shawn Shanmuganathan BS, RDMS, RVTin the Emergency Medicine/ Point of Care Ultrasound class. Both have traveled quite a long way; Steven is visiting from Indiana and Ben is here all the way from Alaska. We were excited to have you in our classroom.