Medical Imaging:

Michael D. Wheeler

The field of medical imaging has embraced numerous technologies in the last twenty years. Terms that were unfamiliar even to medical professionals only a few decades ago -- computed tomography, nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance imaging -- are now a part of everyday language. Techniques that were once unheard of -- cross-sectioning every part of the anatomy and replicating soft-tissue organs in 3-D -- are now commonplace.
As radiologists have added these sophisticated imaging tools to their arsenal of diagnostic instruments, the demand for improvements has continued. Now the battle cry is for more computerized imaging, higher speeds, reduced costs and improved storage and retrieval systems.