MRI Scanners: 3T Machines Are Best - Patient Care and Quality

Patient Care Issue:

Tesla (T) is the unit of measurement quantifying the strength of a magnetic field. Prior to the 3 Tesla Machine, the high-field standard was 1.5 Tesla. The 3T scanner generates a magnetic field that is twice the strength of 1.5 Tesla machines and 10 to 15 times the strength of low field or open MRI scanners. The magnetic field produced by a 3T MRI System yields exceptional anatomic detail. The scan time for a 3T machine is less than 20 minutes (low field scanner time is 60 minutes). Thus, if a picture is worth a thousand words, the 3 Tesla MRI is an encyclopedia. The increased image clarity revealed by 3T is particularly beneficial for pathological conditions involving the brain, spine, and musculoskeletal system.

I typically refer my patients to Simon Med Radiology ( simonmed.com), specifically one of their four locations which have a 3T scanner. These locations are Scottsdale, Mesa, Phoenix and West Valley. It is important for me to use the best available technology to treat my patients. The detailed images from a 3T knee MRI improves my diagnostic accuracy. This is one way in which I can provide patients better care.

Health Care Cost and Quality Issue:

Ten years ago, the age of a scanner might not have mattered so much. Now, said Dr. Gary Glazer, the chairman of radiology at Stanford, technology has advanced so much that the older scanner “is not the same machine.”

More than 95 million high-tech scans are done each year, and medical imaging, including CT, M.R.I. and PET scans, has ballooned into a $100-billion-a-year industry in the United States, with Medicare paying for $14 billion of that. But recent studies show that as many as 20 percent to 50 percent of the procedures should never have been done because their results did not help diagnose ailments or treat patients.

“The system is just totally, totally broken,” said Dr. Vijay Rao, the chairwoman of the radiology department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia.

Radiologists say a decent M.R.I. scan can clearly shown what might be wrong in a patients knee. But non diagnostic scans from old technology machines, medical experts say, are part of a growing problem with medical imaging.

Many factors contribute. Insurers pay the same for a scan done on a 10-year-old machine as one on the latest model, though the differences in the images can be significant.

Insurers do not distinguish between scans that are done poorly or done well or read by less- or more-qualified doctors. Aside from mammography, whose standards were established by a law that went into effect more than a decade ago, the field is largely unregulated.

The Health Care Cost and Quality paragraph points out another way in which the delivery of medicine can be improved and this improvement can be combined with cost containment.