The Role of Research in Advancement of Radiography - Coursework Example

The role of research in advancement of radiography The role of research in THE ROLE OF RESEARCH IN ADVANCEMENT OF RADIOGRAPHY : Health & Medical Sciences Submitted by : ___________ Submitted on : 26 May 2012 Contents Contents 2 1. The Role of Research in Advancement of Radiography Introduction The purpose of this report is to consider the dynamic role research plays in the fields of radiography in the 21st century. Today, innovation and technology has given our world a new shape where everything is becoming possible. By using the digital medical libraries, research and study in radiography are growing rapidly and creating promising outcomes (Humphreys, 2000). Research plays a vital role in every field as it removes the elements of ambiguity by logical reasoning and it provides outcomes that are based on ground realities. In the radiography, advancement and performance levels have increased with the help of such research processes. According to a study, 2 million articles on medical and health issues are published yearly throughout the world (Balas et. al. 2000). By the help of such educational opportunities, radiography research is carried out worldwide on a vast level, which promotes the importance of research processes and quality information in order to achieve further advancement and improvement in the health care areas (Lowrance, 2002). In this world, change is taking place every second and research is essential to achieve quality information for the development of science and improved health. In order to survive, improvements and new ways of doing things are required. Similarly, in the health and medical care profession, change requires new scientific proofs, outcomes, remedies which can only be achieved through accurate research processes (Lowrance, 2002). The quantity of knowledge regarding radiography is expanding dramatically as more people are taking interest in research processes in order to find answers to those medical problems that were considered life threatening in the past. All this is becoming possible today due to the advanced level of education, training, knowledge, opportunities available to researchers and students (Humphreys, 2000). Definition of Research Research is a systematic investigation process, which includes research development, testing and evaluation, carried out in order to develop knowledge and understanding about the element under study. It may also include biomedical research, epidemiological studies, and radiography research. The widely used form of health research is the clinical trial, in which patients volunteer to take part in the research process to test the accuracy and safety of new medical interventions. Trends towards research are changing and a large portion of health research is now information based. Normally, research involves the analysis of data and biological samples collected for identifying the cause of disease and how it can be cured. This approach of data is a common research approach in fields such as epidemiology, radiography research (Lowrance, 2002). How research created advancement in radiography Radiography Radiography is a procedure that is used by doctor’s in order to see the inner parts of a human body. In this technique an X- ray pattern of the infected body part is recorded so that its image can be studied to find out the cause behind the problem. Research in radiography is either influenced by the policy, professional and social factors. As a medical professional I felt radiography is important for diagnosing most of the diseases hence, any research in this field helps the study of radiography to improve its sphere. I firmly believe that there are many diseases which cannot be defined or treated in a traditional way. Medical researchers have helped medical professionals like me by discovering different types of radiography that enable the physicians to diagnose and treat the patients in a more advanced manner. Advancement of Radiography A few decades back the conventional X-Ray machines were used by the medical practitioners for advanced diagnosis of a patient but in the last few decades there has been a tremendous advancement in the field of radiology or radiography and the medical professionals have access to many advanced radiography machines like Sonography, Color Doppler, CT, MRI, DSA, etc. Even the conventional X-Rays are displaced with Digital X-Rays. Actually, presently the radiology has changed to medical imaging. The advancement in radiography has enabled medical professionals like me to digitize the images which can be manipulated in an electronic format and enhanced. Now radiography is done in two ways: 1. Digital Radiography 2. Computed Radiography The advancement of radiography has enabled the medical practitioners like me to diagnose the patients more accurately as: i. There is a remarkable improvement in image quality ii. There is no need for retakes. iii. There is no loss of films iv. Multiple images can be obtained from one exposure v. multiple images can be made available on one film vi. images can be provided on other medium than film Besides these the advancement of radiography has introduced many sophisticated new machines to enable the medical practitioners’ to diagnose different medical cases differently. Some of the advanced radiography machines are X-rays, Fluoroscopy, Nuclear Medicine, Digital Radiography, Periapical and Bite-Wing Radiographs, Panoramic Radiographs, Angiography and Interventional Procedures, Angiogram, Angioplasty and Stenting, Computed Tomography (CAT scans, CT scans), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Ultrasound (Itagaki, Suh, Goldin, 2009). As life is precious to everyone, research in radiography holds high value for everyone in the society. It creates awareness on an international level. This advancement in radiography has opened our eyes, made many hidden things visible and brought a remarkable improvement in health care and our standard of life. However, research alone cannot change the world, its aim is to provide guidance and direction to those who are in place to take steps that will make a difference. Medical research will always be needed and can never be enough. That is why international publications in health systems doubled from 91,900 papers per year in 1991 to 178,800 in 2001. Research has played a key role in different medicine associate profession. However, we cannot ignore the importance of research especially in the field of Radiography that has enabled the physicians to treat the patients in a more advanced way with their diseases. Advancement in radiography has enabled radiologic technologists to provide highly developed patient care and communication skills and helped people in remaining healthy. It has enabled them to produce high definition images of the body using advanced state-of-the-art radiation equipment which helps doctors in diagnosing the diseases accurately. Clinical radiography has been the prime objective of the researches for the radiography science to enable radiographers with the advanced professional skills. In health sciences, the conceptual analysis of radiography can be considered as the basic research in the field. The researches in radiography science have contributed to both clinical radiography and the instruction of radiography enabling the professionals to take better decisions, to use computer technology in an advanced manner and to measure the radiation exposure of a population accurately (Alderson, Bresolin, Becker, et al. 2004). Radiology and Cardiology The researches in radiology or radiography has contributed substantially to all branches of medical science but its contribution to the cardiology has special significance as the advancement in radiography has facilitated medical practitioners with such tools which helped them to achieve many milestones in treating heart patients. In recent decades, the cardiac imaging has developed tremendously along with coronary angiography and noninvasive imaging technology which facilitated medical practitioners with SPECT, Echocardiography, MRI and Multi-detector CT (MDCT) which enabled them for accurate diagnosis and to monitor cardiovascular diseases. The roles of cardiologists and radiologists have changed completely after the advancement in radiography which resulted through the researches done in the field of radiography in the recent decades. It has increased the contributions made by the radiologists as the Multi-detector CT (MDCT) and Cardiac MR (CMR) play very important in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. This situation is entirely different from the initial period of cardiac imaging development, when a watershed area was felt between radiology and cardiology. The researches in radiography have resulted in the development of Echocardiography which has become the prime noninvasive tool for diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Now this technique is mainly used by the cardiologists and not by the radiologists which was earlier shared by both. If we compare the cardiac imaging practices of 1960s or 1970s it can be easily found that during that period it was dependent on conventional radiography and angiography but now we have noninvasive techniques of cardiac imaging like MDCT and CMR which have completely replaced the pre-eminence of angiography and catheterization. In fact, it has redefined and reactivated the role of radiography, radiologists in the medical science. The clinical role of radiologists and radiography has also increased substantially with the enhancement of Cardiac CT (Miguel-Dasit A, Marti-Bonmati L, Sanfeliu P, et al. 2007). Role of Radiography in Medical Science Radiography has enabled medical practitioners to get the accurate and proper demonstration of body parts for more accurate diagnosis. Researches in the field of radiography have enabled professional radiographers to produce better radiographs enabling medical practitioners for better diagnosis. The standardization of the radiography has enabled medical practitioners to compare clinical radiographs produced anywhere in the world. Radiography is significantly used in osteological research for metrical and morphological studies. One remarkable contribution of radiography is the donation of documented radiographs of skulls of 10 000 patients from the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases to the Natural History division of the British Museum. These radiographs belonged to patients of different ages and demography and serve the purpose of a large database for various uses (Gunderman, Weinreb, Borgstede, et al. 2007). Hurdles in Research of Radiography The contributions of researches in radiography to medical science in the last few decades have been substantial and enabled medical practitioners for the diagnosis of the diseases more accurately and treating them more efficiently (Higgins, 2000). The success story of the development and progress of medical science in the world is incomplete without the contribution of radiography to the medical science. Radiography has contributed substantially to the medical science but there are still more to be done. It requires more researches and more advancement which can only be achieved by handling the following hurdles: a. lack of support b. requirement adequate time for clinical service c. income of researchers is very low as compared to clinical service d. there is no protected time for research e. lack of suitable space for competitive research f. radiology is perceived as a service provider only g. there is poor communication and misperception in this field causing disrespect between clinical radiologists and investigators—both physicians and non-physicians h. cultural conflicts between different departments of medical science i. selection of researchers who do not have any interest in research j. lack of competence in researchers Conclusion Researches in radiology have provided imaging as an important and fast growing tool to the radiologists to diagnose a disease with perfection. It has strengthened the basic and the pivotal role of the radiologists in imaging including cardiac imaging. The researches in the radiography have been done for both on development and approbation of new technical applications and on clinical evidence-based radiology. Researches in radiography have been able to develop a better cooperation among different specialty radiologists, analysts, cardiologists, pediatrics, surgeons and nuclear medicine specialists as it is essential to provide better service. The radiological societies like ESR/ECR, ESOR, ESCR, ESMRMB, EIBIR, SCMR, ESPR and ESTI have contributed substantially for the researches in the radiography and imaging and these researches have ensured good quality and high impact. All these efforts and advancement in radiography will establish radiology as a distinct sub-specialty in the future. References Balas, et al. 2000. Managing clinical knowledge for health care improvement. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, pp. 65-70. Humphreys, B L 2000. Electronic health record meets digital library. Journal of the Amran Medial Informatics Association, 7 (5), pp. 444-452. Lowrance, WW 2002. Learning from experience, privacy and the secondary use of data in health research. London: The Nuffield Trust. Higgins CH (2000) Cardiac Imaging. Radiology, Vol. 217, pp. 4-10. Gunderman RB, Weinreb JC, Borgstede JP, et al. 2007. The 2006 ACR Forum: cardiovascular imaging: learning from the past, strategies for the future. J Am Coll Radiol, Vol. 4, pp. 24-31. Miguel-Dasit A, Marti-Bonmati L, Sanfeliu P, et al. 2007.Cardiac MR imaging: Balanced publication by radiologists and cardiologists. Radiology,Vol. 242, pp. 410-416 Alderson PO, Bresolin LB, Becker GJ, et al. 2004.Enhancing research in academic radiology departments: recommendations of the 2003 consensus conference.Radiology, Vol. 232, pp. 405-408. Itagaki MW, Suh RD., Goldin JG, 2009. Cardiac CT research: Exponential growth. Radiology Vol. 252, pp. 468-476. Read More