Many ‘wow’ moments included training on first CT system
Congratulations to RAD Magazine on its 50th birthday edition. And I’m celebrating too. Fifty years ago, I started training as a radiographer. How does one describe 50 years in this industry? Invariably, it is hard to ignore the advances in technology. As a trainee radiographer at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, I was both amazed and delighted to be a ‘CT pioneer’ on the first EMI CT1000 installed in south Australia. Having performed direct puncture carotid arteriograms (yes, really), how could we believe that 10 x 1cm slices through the human brain could be created in an hour? Especially when we still had a wet film processing darkroom for those occasions when we needed to ‘cook’ the film because the mobile x-ray unit lacked the power to penetrate a large, immobile patient.
These stories may sound implausible now, but are still very much part of my hands-on journey through general radiography, CT and ultrasound. Now with many more advanced technologies to further improve our diagnostic capabilities, there will be many radiographers who have never experienced the ‘wow’ moments of identifying anatomy that had previously only been seen at dissection or in photographs in a textbook.
Having moved through management roles (and halfway across the world), I have also seen the move to a digital world with the excitement and challenges that has brought. I still recall clinicians saying they would “never have a computer on my desk.” Patient expectation is different too, particularly when they demand that the latest technology is imperative to their care. But, despite all the innovations, one thing remains: our role is to provide the best quality care to our patients within the scope and capability of the tools we have available. Long may all the current and future radiographers continue to do so.
I have been so fortunate to see all of this unfold and, like RAD Magazine, I still want to keep abreast of everything happening in our industry. And that is why the magazine, and I, are still here.
Pictured are my original ID and name badge. We had to white out the word ‘trainee’ when we qualified as they did not provide new badges. Also shown is the PA version of my side markers – where is the AP version, I wonder?
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