MR SAFETY WEEK

The final week of July every year is MR safety week, in recognition of the anniversary of the 2001 MRI-related death of 6 year-old Michael Colombini, which resulted from a steel oxygen cylinder being brought into the MRI room during his exam.

This tragic, needless death is not alone, with the most recent South Korea in 2021 and in India in 2018.

MR safety week aims to provide necessary education and resources to prevent future MR-related death and injury - an opportunity to share MR safety procedures that are tried and tested to improve safety for both patients and staff.

ISMRM has led the way internationally in the distribution of essential MR safety tools and has free MR Safety education videos for all healthcare staff. More free resources and reports are available here: https://www.ismrm.org/mr-safety-links/mr-safety-week-2022/

For those of us in the UK, the British Institute of Radiology have several special podcasts and advice sheets for the imaging community. In addition, they have also made available a Cardiac Device podcast, ahead of the new cardiac devices guidance being announced. Dr Mark Radon chats to Dr Charlotte Manisty, Consultant Cardiologist at University College London and Dr Jonathan Ashmore, Clinical Scientist at NHS Highland about the issues around scanning patients with cardiac pacemakers.

An essential seminar as part of our Cardiac MRI Level 1 Course, we also cover CMR safety: magnetic fields, contrast agents, and contraindications, which is required by SCMR for their Level 1 Certification.

Another great online resource is www.MRSafety.com developed by Dr Frank Shellock, who is also speaking in Edinburgh as part of an MR Safety Update and Innovations Day on 17th September (2022) alongside Dr Martin Graves, our Physics lead for our Cardiac MRI courses. More information on this MR Safety Course and other MR Safety Courses including Dr Kanal’s European Course ending in the UK-modified ABMRS exams is available here.

For more information on MRI courses covering Abdominal, Head & Neck, MSK and more, check out our Upcoming Imaging Courses www.jcaseminars.com/courses