Safety in radiology is expected by our patients, colleagues, administrators, providers, national organizations, oversight organizations, and the government. It is no longer enough to provide accurate reports of findings on imaging studies. Radiologists and their coworkers in the radiology department…
Introduction The challenge of a changing economy and increasing pressure in healthcare for optimal performance while dealing with limited resources and maintaining the high quality levels of medicine is becoming increasingly difficult. There is increasing demand for quality improvement to…
Current and Traditional Definitions of Quality in Healthcare How do we best define quality in healthcare? The quality literature includes several definitions. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines quality of care as the degree to which health services for individuals…
Concepts for Quality Improvement Quality improvement (QI) methods are not new; they are just relatively new to the healthcare industry and the field of radiology. As a result, there is currently a gap between the high desire and need to…
To Err is Human When the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now the Academy of Medicine) first released its report, To Err Is Human , in 1999, headlines were made throughout the world. The notion that our healthcare delivery system was…
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5.1.1 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 5.1.1.1 Introduction In the large majority of applications MRI focuses on detecting proton signal, in particular the signal from water protons. It therefore provides information about anatomical structure and the biophysical state of tissue water. Magnetic…
4.3.1 Rationale Spinal cord blood vessels are millimeter- to submillimeter-sized blood vessels that are hard to visualize in the human body. In vivo imaging of spinal cord arteries and veins was until recently only possible using invasive catheter-based angiography, which…
4.2.1 What is Physiological Noise? Physiological noise can be defined as any signal change occurring in an image that is due to the subject and that is of no interest. Equally, movement of the subject (e.g., bulk movement of the cord)…
4.1.1 Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent 4.1.1.1 Basic Principles Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows noninvasive detection of neuronal activity. fMRI based on the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast mechanism was first introduced in 1990. The basic principle behind the…