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Discussion: Daily QC in Digital RadiographyReported This is a featured thread

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eliseleblanc
eliseleblanc
Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Sep 18 2009, 9:04 AM EDT | Post edited: Sep 18 2009, 9:04 AM EDT
General question for anyone:
What is the daily QC practice for digital (DR/CR) radiography at your institution? 4  out of 5 found this valuable. Do you?    
aNm20
aNm20
1. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 2 2009, 2:37 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 2 2009, 2:37 AM EST
At my workplace this issue is not given much importance, what are the measures like at ur institution? 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
eliseleblanc
eliseleblanc
2. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 2 2009, 9:31 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 2 2009, 9:31 AM EST
Of the 4 places I have worked only one of them does daily QC for CR & DR. At the one institution that does do daily QC, for CR we image a phantom which was constructed on site which includes the "9 penny" method for measuring field size and also a straight ruler to measure aliasing. We also record mAs and kV to track changes. For DR we use a copper filter and just check field uniformity and exposure.

The reason I ask is because I am working on a project to develop more objective and imperical methods, like using manufactured phantoms and software that assesses these phantoms and tracks any changes. 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
aNm20
aNm20
3. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 3 2009, 1:36 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 3 2009, 1:36 AM EST
what's "9 penny method" and aliasing??? aliasing is phenomenon i rem i studied in ultrasound physics..

I am a 3rd year BSc(hons) medical imaging student.. and i also have to submit a literature review at the end of this year. I am totally baffled as to what should be research question.. any ideas?? and that's honestly what made me join wiki radiography too.. 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
eliseleblanc
eliseleblanc
4. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 3 2009, 1:44 PM EST | Post edited: Nov 3 2009, 2:06 PM EST
The "9 penny" method is a QC test which measures light field and radiation beam congruency. That means does the light field really show where the x-ray beam goes. They *should* match up. Its kind an older more rudimentary test. Now you can buy metal phantoms which have rulers and lines which allow you to measure a bit more precicely. You can read more about the 9 penny method here:
http://www.aapm.org/pubs/reports/rpt_04.pdf
on page 22.

Aliasing is an artifact caused by insufficient sampling of the x-ray signal and the scattered radiation grid. You may know it as the "moire" pattern, they say it looks like a zebra pattern. There is an example and description of aliasing artifact at this website:
http://www.upstate.edu/radiology/rsna/radiography/artifact/
way down at the bottom of the page.

As for your literature review problem, you must have a special interest in some area of practice? Do you have any particular interests? Once you have a general idea, if you search in a database like PubMed or Google Scholar you can see what kind of recent studies have been done on the topic. 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
aNm20
aNm20
5. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 3 2009, 11:01 PM EST | Post edited: Nov 3 2009, 11:01 PM EST
thanks elisele!! that was pretty helpful.. :-)

Amm yeah i have interest in practice and we daily have to go to our clinical placement.. Like that's the part of our degree program and separate credits are given for it... But I am more inclined towards research and i want to pursue my career as a researcher..
what about you?? r u a student too? 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
eliseleblanc
eliseleblanc
6. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 4 2009, 12:25 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 4 2009, 12:25 AM EST
I am also a student in my 4th year. We also have clinical placements as part of our degree program. At one hospital I do placements at some of the x-ray techs do research cases at certain times during the day while working in general x-ray for most of the day. Also, there are MRI techs who work only in research. I think if you're interested in this for your career you should be able to find some level of involvement in research. 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
aNm20
aNm20
7. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 4 2009, 3:03 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 4 2009, 3:03 AM EST
Hey BTW r u guys celebrating World's Radiography day?? or have u ever celebrated it?? I belong from Pakistan and m doing my BSC(Hons) from Bradford university.. But I go to shuakat khanum hospital daily for studying...It's a virtual learning program.. And we are the first badge in Pakistan.. the PIONEERS..:-)...As it's a developing country, nobody as-in the general public here knows abt this profession.. They think it's some low class profession.. My mates here are quite actively preparing to celebrate this event.. I am also delivering a talk... the topic would be "who the radiographers are??"..
do u have any suggestions or ideas??? or some web resources that could be uselful for me???? 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
eliseleblanc
eliseleblanc
8. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 4 2009, 7:33 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 4 2009, 7:33 AM EST
In Canada we celebrate "Medical Radiation Technologist Week" from November 8th-14th (next week). Its really exciting that you're in the first graduates in your country. Even though there have been radiographers in Canada for about 100 years, there are still some people in the general public who have no idea what we do, they ask "Are you a doctor or a nurse?". It always surprises me that they don't know but its also a good opportunity to tell them about our profession.

For your talk on "who the radiographers are?",

http://camrt.ca/english/profession/rad_tech.asp
This is from the website of the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists
It gives a kind of description of radiographers

Bentley, H. B. (2005). Early days of radiography. Radiography, 11, 45-50.
This is a journal article which talks about the origin of radiographers. I.e. the development of the profession. You might have access to this through your school? If you don't I can send it to you.. Do you find this valuable?    
aNm20
aNm20
9. RE: Daily QC in Digital Radiography
Nov 5 2009, 12:29 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 5 2009, 12:29 AM EST
OMG! u face issues just like us!!.. Here,when the patients get their X-rays, CTs or MRIs done, they would ask how's my image? like i have the abnormality or not??
then i tell them that we're not authorized to tell.. then they would ask? are u not doctors??.. I tell them no i am a radiographer... and the face they make after hearing it.. it's just too humiliating.. i never thought doctors have monopolized there exactly the way it's like here in Pakistan!!...Isn't it like a solar system in which doctors are the sun and all others are just revolving around them like planets...this is too discriminatory!! :-(

I have got the access to the website.. But i m not able to access the journal article..
Can u please email it to me.. the article if you have it! on anum.dawood@gmail.com

Thanks a lot for your help!


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