Your Guide to Medical Imaging Equipment

The basic design and functionality of a portable X-ray machine hasn't changed dramatically over the last 20 years. This is precisely why it's so common to find GE AMX machines from 2005, 2000, and even 1995 still being used in hospitals every day.

Even so, digital X-ray is becoming more and more prevalent in fixed systems, leaving radiology directors in search of economical ways to digitize their portable X-ray images without having to line up at the CR reader after each study. What you'll see below are three upgrade options from Block Imaging that make this happen. 

Getting a portable X-ray unit soon? Click here to share your needs & get a quick quote.

The wonders of technology have created a greater peace of mind for many medical offices and hospitals by providing a way to easily, effectively, and safely store and retrieve digital records. Nothing demonstrates this clearer than when a facility experiences an event that damages or destroys imaging and record-keeping equipment. As "set-it-and-forget-it" as backup and recovery technology can seem, these systems still require some proactive treatment.

Whether the event in question is disastrous for a single laptop (dropped on a hard floor) or for dozens of pieces of equipment across a network (flooding in your building's first couple of floors), the following are some industry best practices to help make sure that restoring access to your patient data can be quick and easy, freeing you to respond to the other urgencies that arise in a disaster recovery scenario.

Near field communication (NFC) is not a new technology. It's been used in everything from cellphones, to credit cards, to wristwatches. It's the technology that allows you to buy groceries with a tap from your card, exchange social contacts with a wave of your phone, and enter secure locations with a key fob or a name badge. Now, NFC has been integrated into digital radiography (DR) panels to further the workflow improvements already offered by DR.

If your imaging facility is hoping to use a single DR panel across multiple X-ray systems, a panel equipped with NFC not only makes it possible, it does so easily and quickly.

So, here's a relevant, but completely hypothetical (unless you're living it right now) scenario for you: The FDA auditor is in your office, ready to inspect your X-ray imaging equipment, when you hear him say, “May I see a copy of the 2579 form for this system?” 

Do you know which form he's talking about (click here if you don’t)? If you do, do you know where it is? If your imaging facility can't provide a completed FDA 2579 form for each diagnostic X-ray system in the building, you can be written up in violation of federal requirements and may be subject to associated penalties.

If you aren't sure where your form is or if you even have one, don’t panic, we'll share with you below four different ways you can get your hands on another copy of your FDA 2579.

Never heard of FDA 2579? Find out about it here.

You’ve bought an expensive, top of the line wireless DR panel (digital radiography). It’s only been out of the box for two days when your lead tech, who is used to working with inexpensive CR plates, drops it. Do you have DR panel drop coverage?

Okay, so the paragraph above is scary, right? Almost scary enough to second-guess an upgrade or certainly purchase insurance coverage. Costly object X is entered into catastrophic situation Y and a hypothetical lack of coverage leads to budget-crushing dollar amount Z in damages. The story may be hackneyed but, at its core, it relays the reason why any of us buy coverage for anything: in case of XYZ.

If you're on the road to DR panel ownership, drop coverage should at least be part of the conversation with your provider. Keep reading and we'll share more details you can use as you approach the subject of DR panel drop coverage.

Want even more protection for your DR panel? Click here to learn about protective DR panel carrying cases.