Facing an adverse medical condition is always a stressful and frightening prospect, but it can be made especially unnerving by the diagnostic process. The machines used to diagnose internal medical conditions have always been large, confining, and noisy machines. Many people are bothered by feelings of claustrophobia upon being confined in an MRI machine even for a short time. Additionally, the noise the machine makes and the feeling of having been abandoned in the machine produces feelings of fear that can be very powerful.
Fortunately, that type of experience may now be a thing of the past as more medical imaging centers invest in new technologies. Of particular interest is the open MRI machine, which has been developed with patient comfort in mind. This type of diagnostic machine eliminates the enclosed space that has bothered so many patients in the past. Instead, the machine provides a comfortable platform with a cushion upon which the patient can lie. The machine comes equipped with a communication system, which allows the patient and technician to communicate more efficiently.
As we learn more about the importance of early diagnostics, creating more efficient and more comfortable medical imaging machines becomes essential. In being able to identify illnesses sooner, doctors can begin treatments when disease is still in the early stages. This makes the success of treatments more likely and allows patients to recover more quickly.
There may soon come a time when undergoing medical imaging scans is a routine part of every physical exam. This is because early detection is so important to successful treatment. Even now, regular lung cancer screenings are being recommended for at-risk individuals, so the disease can be caught in its infancy. Including lung cancer, various types of cancer are more successfully treated in the early stages. Advances in medical imaging makes this possible.
As medical imaging advances, technologies are focusing on two different aspects. Some technology focuses on providing more accurate scans, while other innovations target patient comfort. By improving the experience for patients, scans can be conducted more efficiently, providing more accuracy with each scan. In this way, patient comfort and the imaging technology itself combine to help technicians and doctors raise the quality of care for each patient.