No Time Like the Present to be a Nuclear Medicine Technologist or a MRI Technologist
This blog is now focused on laboratory specialties. This article is here for your information only, as jobs are no longer provided for any radiation technician specialties.
Now is an interesting time to be an MRI technologist or a nuclear medicine technologist because of the current studies being done in those fields. MRI imaging and nuclear medicine are being researched in hopes of using them to learn more about how the brain works and why things go wrong. The goal is to find the physical or neurological things that correlate with mental problems and can be measured by imagin
g done by a nuclear medicine technologist or an MRI technologist.
A nuclear medicine technologist is familiar with brain imaging such as PET and SPECT, which is already being used to see the areas of the brain where epileptic seizures start, and to look at the brain for indications that an epileptic seizure might occur, such as brain trauma or dementia. Another use a nuclear medicine technologist might see of SPECT imaging is to wait for a patient to seize, then a nuclear medicine technologist will quickly inject the radioisotope. Next, the nuclear medicine technologist will study the SPECT image to see where the seizure began. With this information, a surgical intervention could be done. There are even some nuclear technologists who are moving into private outpatient clinics where they will use SPECT imaging to help diagnosis neurobehavioral problems.
Some studies are done by looking at normal brains to study how humans learn. Researchers want to see if there are any structural, biochemical, or neuro-connections that indicate higher intelligence, and a nuclear medicine technologist might get to help look for these. Similar studies are being done looking at developmental delays and language problems.
One limitation of imaging that nuclear medicine technologists will see in detecting and studying neurological problems is the subject’s ability to remain still enough for a nuclear medicine technologist to take an image. A nuclear medicine technologist often has trouble imaging young kids. While children can be sedated to be imaged by a nuclear medicine technologist in necessary situations, this is not feasible for safety and ethical reasons in studies.
Learn about hiring a nuclear medicine technologist or a MRI technologist.
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Ward, Joyce, CNMT, RT(N) (2006, August 7) Probing the Mind. Advance for Imaging and Radiation Thereapy Professionals, 13-15
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