| Medical technology is advancing faster today than it | | | | high-frequency sound waves, radioactivity, and |
| ever has before. Scientists and machine technicians | | | | magnetic fields. Ultrasounds and magnetic resonance |
| are working hard daily to invent machines that not only | | | | imaging (MRI) machines are just two devices that use |
| work faster and more efficiently, but that are also | | | | modern imaging technology. Both of these pieces of |
| more accurate. Medical machines do everything from | | | | equipment are extremely important to the practice of |
| taking x-rays and brain scans to analyzing blood | | | | medicine today. |
| samples. Many machines can provide more than one | | | | In the United States, radiologists attend medical school |
| service, making them extremely useful in hospitals and | | | | for four years before training in this specialty. Post |
| clinics. There are so many machines today, however, | | | | graduate training includes one year of rotation and four |
| that it is impossible for every physician to learn how to | | | | years as a diagnostic radiology resident. At the end of |
| operate every piece of equipment and to know how | | | | their residency, radiologists must pass a board |
| to interpret the data the machine collects. | | | | examination issued by the American Board of |
| These machines help save thousands of lives per | | | | Radiology. If this exam is passed successfully, these |
| year, but they are only helpful if someone can use and | | | | radiologists are able to go into practice or continue their |
| read them correctly. An untrained doctor might make a | | | | training with a fellowship that lasts from one to two |
| misdiagnosis. Therefore, the invention of this new | | | | years in length. |
| medical equipment required the creation of a new field | | | | It is important to have medical equipment that works |
| of medicine, that of radiology. | | | | efficiently and accurately. However, it is essential to |
| Radiology is the study of using medical imaging | | | | have specialists on hand that are able to operate |
| technology to diagnose and sometimes treat disease. | | | | these machines safely as well as interpret the data |
| The very first radiologists dealt mainly with x-ray | | | | correctly. Radiology is one of the most important fields |
| technology, but the field has expanded greatly due to | | | | of medicine today and, with the use of the medical |
| advances in imaging techniques. Today, radiologists | | | | imaging equipment they operate, radiologists help save |
| operate machines that take images using | | | | lives everyday. |