NEWSWORTHY NOTES
 Dr. Elaine Lewis
Dr.
Elaine Lewis has been named Chief of the Section of Diagnostic
Radiology. In this position, Dr. Lewis will provide clinical
leadership to 20 physicians who utilize advanced technology
to assist in the diagnosis of disease and injury. Diagnostic
radiology services are provided 24-hours a day, seven days
a week.
A member of The Reading Hospital and Medical Center's Medical
Staff since 1990, Dr. Lewis is in practice with West Reading
Radiology Associates.
Dr. Lewis is a graduate of the Medical
College of Pennsylvania, and completed her undergraduate
studies in biochemistry at Albright College.
64-Slice CT Scanner comes to Reading
West Reading Radiology Associates (WRRA)
is excited about the acquisition of a new 64-slice CT scanner.
This new high-tech tool allows an efficient and non-invasive
evaluation of the heart, lungs and arteries as well as a host
of other application as well.
The primary focus of
the 64-slice CT scanner is its application for cardiac studies.
Its fast acquisition speed enables us to look at the coronary
arteries to evaluate anatomy and locate blockages as well
as evaluate the actual heart function. Scans of the patient’s
heart can be performed in seconds. The patient now only
has to hold their breath for ten seconds or less to achieve
scans with superior resolution. Patients can return to home
or work shortly after the procedure and resume all of their
normal activities. In addition to the initial cardiac work-up,
the scanner can also be used to non-invasively follow patients
after angioplasty, placement of stents or who are placed
on certain statin drugs to see if these therapies are having
their desired effect.
The new technology is
not limited to cardiac care. It will also provide enhanced
stroke identification and management, advanced lung-analysis,
and detect primary metastatic cancer via 3-dimentional reconstruction.
Future applications include enhancing diagnosis in the emergency
department, with the ED physician able to determine quickly
if someone is truly experiencing a heart attack. It will
also help with the detection of bone and soft tissue damage
in trauma patients.
The scanner is very patient
friendly. Due to its short bore (rather than the longer,
narrow enclosed cylinder) and its short scan time, most
claustrophobic patient have no problems being scanned in
the machine. The short acquisition
time is also a real bonus for pediatric patients who often
move during longer scans, resulting in the need for sedation.
Obviously all this advanced technology
is irrelevant without the expertise to interpret what it
produces. WRRA radiologists are trained in cross-sectional
imaging and can evaluate cardiac function and coronary artery
plaque while assessing the thoracic structure for other
diseases. This training can help determine whether a patient's
symptoms are truly cardiac in nature or the result of some
other cause: pulmonary embolism, aneurysm, aortic dissection,
or even atypical pneumonia. Our cross-sectional imaging
expertise allows us to differentiate among various abnormalities
to ensure optimal patient care.
West Reading Radiology Associates
Funds Radiology Research
 WEST
READING, Pennsylvania (October 2, 2006) - Once again West
Reading Radiology Associates has made a commitment to the
support of research and education in radiology with a donation
of $10,000 to the Radiological Society of North America’s
(RSNA) Research and Education Foundation. West
Reading Radiology Associates’ contribution to the RSNA foundation
will be used to fund research into the early detection and
diagnosis of disease.
Visionaries In Practice (VIP), a program
of the RSNA Research and Education Foundation, was created
to provide private practice groups a vehicle for supporting
radiology research. West
Reading Radiology Associates is one of the first private practice
organizations to participate.
"West Reading Radiology Associates
sees the support of academic radiology as a crucial component
in assuring the future of high quality diagnostic imaging," said
Brent J. Wagner, M.D., West Reading's president and Chairman
of the Radiology Department at The Reading Hospital and Medical
Center. "The advances
made in medical imaging, including amazing refinements in
MRI, CT scans, and PET scans over the past decade, have been
possible only as a result of the contributions of basic and
clinical research of academic radiologists and their departments," Dr
Wagner said. "West Reading Radiology feels
a responsibility to invest in this continued development."
“Practices
such as West Reading Radiology Associates and their individual
members are truly ‘visionary’ in their support of the future
of our profession through the RSNA Research and Education
Foundation,” said William T. Thorwarth Jr., M.D., chairman
of the VIP Program Subcommittee. “We
are at a critical time when all radiologists must share this
same vision and commitment.”
Since its inception in 1984,
the RSNA Research and Education Foundation has awarded more
than $21 million in grant support to nearly 530 investigators. Each
dollar donated to the Research and Education Foundation typically
results in an additional nine dollars worth of grant awards
from other research organizations, such as the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), according to Dr. Thorwarth.
West Reading
Radiology Associates exists to provide high quality community-appropriate
diagnostic imaging services to Berks County and its surrounding
communities. The practice
is a specialty healthcare group dedicated to offering quality
imaging services. West Reading Radiology Associates
has been Berks County's largest radiology group since 1970,
and is comprised of 22 radiologists and two radiologist assistants. The
group’s physicians are all board certified and have diverse
training and subspecialty expertise. West Reading Radiology
Associates offers a full range of diagnostic radiology services
including computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, conventional
and open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mammography and
women’s imaging services, nuclear medicine, bone densitometry
and positron emission tomography (PET).
RSNA is an association of more than 38,000 radiologists, radiation
oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed
to promoting excellence in radiology through education and by
fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient
care.
 The American Institute of Ultrasound in
Medicine
The American Institute of Ultrasound in
Medicine elected Brent J.
Wagner, M.D., Director, Radiology, to senior membership. Dr.
Wagner also
traveled to the Japanese College of Radiology in Kobe to lecture
on ovarian
neoplasm in imaging and adrenal radiologic-pathologic correlation.
Click
Here to link to the AMA Web site with
info on the new AMA/ACR publication (with a free issue).
|
