Critical preparedness and operational response actions directed for the acute and post-acute COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: the experience of a nationwide outpatient healthcare group.

ABSTRACT: While the new Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rapidly spread across the world, South America was reached later in relation to Asia, Europe and the United States of America (USA). Brazil concentrates now the largest number of cases in the continent and, as the disease speedily progressed throughout the country, prompt and challenging operational strategies had to be taken by institutions caring for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients in order to assure optimal workflows, triage, and management. Although hospitals in the USA, Europe and Asia have shared their experience on this subject, little has been discussed about such strategies in South America or by the perspective of outpatient centers, which are paramount in the radiology field. This article shares the guidelines adopted early in the pandemic by a nationwide outpatient healthcare center composed by a network of more than 200 patient service centers and nearly 2,000 radiologists in Brazil, discussing operational and patient management strategies, staff protection, changes adopted in the fellowship program, and the effectiveness of such measures.

Increasing Diversity in Radiology and Molecular Imaging: Current Challenges.

This paper summarizes the 2020 Diversity in Radiology and Molecular Imaging: What We Need to Know Conference, a three-day virtual conference held September 9-11, 2020. The World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) and Stanford University jointly organized this event to provide a forum for WMIS members and affiliates worldwide to openly discuss issues pertaining to diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The participants discussed three main conference themes, "racial diversity in STEM," "women in STEM," and "global health," which were discussed through seven plenary lectures, twelve scientific presentations, and nine roundtable discussions, respectively. Breakout sessions were designed to flip the classroom and seek input from attendees on important topics such as increasing the representation of underrepresented minority (URM) members and women in STEM, generating pipeline programs in the fields of molecular imaging, supporting existing URM and women members in their career pursuits, developing mechanisms to effectively address microaggressions, providing leadership opportunities for URM and women STEM members, improving global health research, and developing strategies to advance culturally competent healthcare.

Papel del personal técnico superior en imagen para el diagnóstico durante la pandemia COVID-19: importancia de la organización y planificación en la primera línea / Role of diagnostic imaging technologists during the COVID-19 pandemic: the importance of organization and planning in the first line

La pandemia de COVID-19 y la consecuente declaración del estado de alarma crearon una obligada modificación dentro del ámbito de la sanidad en su totalidad y los servicios de radiodiagnóstico no quedaron exentos. En nuestro servicio conllevó una reestructuración inmediata de la dinámica de trabajo del colectivo de técnicos superiores en imagen para el diagnóstico (TSID), que tuvo un papel destacado en la primera línea de batalla. Para lograr satisfacer las nuevas necesidades, se tuvo que formar al personal, distribuirlo en diferentes áreas y grupos de trabajo y adoptar nuevas medidas de protección y cuidado en el ámbito laboral. También se adecuaron los diferentes circuitos de atención asistencial (COVID-19 vs. no COVID-19), incorporando tecnología, adaptando los recursos existentes al nuevo escenario y creando un circuito rápido de diagnóstico COVID-19. Así mismo, se detallan las recomendaciones que se han de tener en cuenta sobre la estrategia organizativa dentro del servicio de radiología ante un posible rebrote de la pandemia

The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent declaration of a state of alarm have required changes throughout the entire health system and diagnostic imaging departments are no exception. In our department, these circumstances led to an immediate restructuring of the working dynamics of our group of imaging technologists that had an important role in the front lines of the battle. To ensure that these new needs were met, the staff had to be trained and distributed into different areas and working groups; moreover, new protective measures and protocols had to be adopted in the working environment. We also defined different care circuits for patients with COVID-19 and those without COVID-19, incorporating new technologies, adapting existing resources to the new scenario, and creating a circuit for the rapid diagnosis of COVID-19. This paper also provides detailed recommendations for organizing radiology departments in the case of new outbreaks of COVID-19

Design, Development, and Content Creation for an Open Education Physics Website for MRT Education.

BACKGROUND: As health care technologies continue to advance rapidly, resulting in improved standards of practice, it is essential for health care professionals to continually expand on their current skills and knowledge. We describe here an initiative to use open education resources to provide ongoing education in radiation medical sciences and imaging. AIMS: The aim of this study to design an interactive, engaging, multilevel radiation medical physics resource, which is fully open to the public, and functional on all types of computing devices. Our primary target audiences are students and workers in medical radiation technology and other health care professionals as part of their continuing professional development. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: The three tasks of design, development, and content creation were most efficiently performed in parallel wherever possible. A modern responsive web design was adopted to target all desktop and mobile devices. Only open-source tools and libraries were used in developing the OpenPhys website. OVERALL WEBSITE DESIGN AND NAVIGATION: The homepage is a modern tile-based design containing one coloured tile for each lesson. Clicking anywhere on a coloured lesson tile will open up a two-dimensional interactive concept map linking to content pages. Currently, 10 lessons are available online ranging from the electronic structure of the atom to MRI basics: "NMR" and "Inside a Pixel". Lesson pages include text, images, graphics, equations, quizzes, and interactive animations. USER FEEDBACK: An online questionnaire was emailed to current radiation therapy students at the University of Alberta and alumni regarding the functionality and navigation of the website. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, OpenPhys is the first open education resource specializing in radiation physics and medical imaging. We believe OpenPhys will fill existing gaps in the realm of physics education delivery and could be a component of a blended learning initiative. Future steps will include a formal evaluation of the website and content.

Can radiological technologists serve as primary screeners of low-dose computed tomography for the diagnosis of lung cancer?

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Lung Cancer CT Screening of Japan established guidelines for the certification of Radiological Technologists in 2009. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the trends in examination pass rates of the Radiological Technologists and discuss the reasons. METHODS: The cohort comprised 1593 Radiological Technologists (as examinees) based on 10-year of data (with a total of 17 examination runs). First, the examinees' written test results were analyzed. Second, an abnormal finding detection test was conducted using >100 client PCs connected to a dedicated server containing low-dose lung cancer CT screening images of 60 cases. The passing scores were correct answer rate >60% and sensitivity (TP) of >90%, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, 1243 examinees passed with an overall rate of 78%. The average pass rate for the written test was 91%, whereas that for the abnormal findings detection test was 85%. There was a moderate correlation between the test pass rate and average years of clinical experience of the examinees for the abnormal findings detection test (R = 0.558), whereas no such correlation existed for the written test (R = 0.105). CONCLUSIONS: In order for accredited Radiological Technologists to serve as primary screeners of low-dose computed tomography, it is important to revise the educational system according to current standard practices.

Resonancia magnética de cuerpo entero: razones del radiólogo para implantar una técnica útil en la medicina actual / Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging: why radiologists should implement this useful technique in current practice

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Business Intelligence in Hospital Management.

Business intelligence (BI) is a worthwhile investment, and will play a significant role in hospital management in the near future. Implementation of BI is challenging and requires resources, skills, and a strategy, but enables management to have easy access to relevant analysis of data and visualization of important key performance indicators (KPI). Modern BI applications will help to overcome shortages of common "hand-made" analysis, save time and money, and will enable even managers to do "self-service" analysis and reporting.

[Comparison of Japanese Notation and Meanings among Three Terminologies in Radiological Technology Domain].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the notation of technical terms and their meanings among three terminologies in Japanese radiology-related societies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The three terminologies compared in this study were "radiological technology terminology" and its supplement published by the Japan Society of Radiological Technology, "medical physics terminology" published by the Japan Society of Medical Physics, and "electric radiation terminology" published by the Japan Radiological Society. Terms were entered into spreadsheets and classified into the following three categories: Japanese notation, English notation, and meanings. In the English notation, terms were matched to character strings in the three terminologies and were extracted and compared. The Japanese notations were compared among three terminologies, and the difference between the meanings of the two terminologies radiological technology terminology and electric radiation terminology were compared. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: There were a total of 14,982 terms in the three terminologies. In English character strings, 2,735 terms were matched to more than two terminologies, with 801 of these terms matched to all the three terminologies. Of those terms in English character strings matched to three terminologies, 752 matched to Japanese character strings. Of the terms in English character strings matched to two terminologies, 1,240 matched to Japanese character strings. With regard to the meanings category, eight terms had mismatched meanings between the two terminologies. For these terms, there were common concepts between two different meaning terms, and it was considered that the derived concepts were described based on domain.

Business intelligence for the radiologist: making your data work for you.

Although it remains absent from most programs today, business intelligence (BI) has become an integral part of modern radiology practice management. BI facilitates the transition away from lack of understanding about a system and the data it produces toward incrementally more sophisticated comprehension of what has happened, could happen, and should happen. The individual components that make up BI are common across industries and include data extraction and transformation, process analysis and improvement, outcomes measures, performance assessment, graphical dashboarding, alerting, workflow analysis, and scenario modeling. As in other fields, these components can be directly applied in radiology to improve workflow, throughput, safety, efficacy, outcomes, and patient satisfaction. When approaching the subject of BI in radiology, it is important to know what data are available in your various electronic medical records, as well as where and how they are stored. In addition, it is critical to verify that the data actually represent what you think they do. Finally, it is critical for success to identify the features and limitations of the BI tools you choose to use and to plan your practice modifications on the basis of collected data. It is equally important to remember that BI plays a critical role in continuous process improvement; whichever BI tools you choose should be flexible to grow and evolve with your practice.