Grand Tour

I gave a tour through the hospital for all the new radiography students the other day. I first took them down to the huge x-ray archives in the basement. Of course it's locked, which brings to mind the increased importance of patient privacy laws. The archives are also thinning down as each year passes since we went to PACS. This shows real change made by our use of technology. But the fact that struck me was how the x-rays that we take are part of a patient's record and in some cases (legal, for example) are not "ever" destroyed. An x-ray that you took several years ago may be pulled for reinterpretation. Your best and worst work doesn't really disappear after they are first read by a radiologist. I'm not sure if the typical seventh year (now they are purging 1999) will be applied to PACS. What do you think?

CAUTION: TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

A cautionary tale about buying merchandise from a website… I ordered a video camera from Fotoconnection.com and three days later, instead of receiving the camera, I got a call from an aggressive and obnoxious salesman who made me suspicious of this company. When I got off the long phone call with this individual who didn’t know the meaning of “No, I only want the camera”, I googled them – and went to a website that rated online electronics retailers. On a scale of one to five they got only ones from dozens of unhappy customers with similar stories and worse—not receiving the merchandise promised. Immediately, I called Fotoconnection back to cancel my order. They refused to cancel it, even though the camera had not yet been shipped! Now I am in the process of disputing the hefty charge through my credit card company. I should have checked this company out first! Ultimately, I purchased the camera from a well known retailer with a website—no problems. As a side note, I discovered that this camera and so many others are not available in stores. I’m passing this on to those in Radiology because so many of us have to keep up with the technology at work and school. Our “hobbies” like photography can be an enjoyable way to help us stay current.