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Department of Radiology

About Radiology
Radiological services cover an enormous breadth of medical knowledge. Very routine to more difficult radiological determinations are undertaken to attempt to establish differential diagnoses in subjects with diverse disease processes common in cardiology, thoracic surgery, oncology, neurology, orthopedics, obstetrics, accident and emergency, and general medicine.

Radiologic Subspecialties:

  • Interventional radiologists intervene with the body more aggressively than is done by taking x-rays or injecting dyes. They dilate arteries with balloons and put in stents that keep arteries dilated, put filters into veins, and drain abscesses deep within body cavities. Interventional radiologists function as radiologists diagnostically and as surgeons therapeutically.
  • Neuroradiologists provide diagnostic and therapeutic services for vertebral destructive processes (vertebroplasty).
  • Radiation oncologists oversee the care of cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment. They develop, prescribe and monitor the treatment plan.
  • Radiation Physicists and Dosimetrists work directly with the MD in the treatment plan and delivery. The physicists oversee the dosimetrist calculations to make sure treatments are precisely tailored to a patient. Physicists take precise measurements of the radiation beam characteristics and do other safety tests on a regular basis. Not necessarily medical doctors, they are certified by the American Board of Radiology.

Radiologists are diagnosticians who use various imaging modalities to reach conclusions. Originally these modalities all involved the use of ionising radiation, but since the advent of ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) this is no longer the case. The evolution of interventional radiology and the continued improvements in imaging resolution has led to increased diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities.

Imaging now impacts on almost all medical specialties from general practice, through medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and orthopedics, even to psychiatry.