Radiology Doesn't Have To Be Boring: 3 Fun Things That Happened In CT This Week
It’s Friday, which means we’re ready to close out another great week. It’s been a pretty exciting one here in the radiology world, with tons of exciting new studies and news pieces fresh off the presses. It’s a big time for radiology, and CT is no exception. It feels like almost every single day there’s an exciting new case study, application or innovation being discovered for CT technology, and it’s something we’re pretty thrilled about.
Radiology gets a little bit of flack for being a “boring” field. As radiologists, we obviously think that assertion is ridiculous. Sure, some of the research studies can get a bit dry, but there are a lot of really cool things happening in our industry that are actually kind of fun, too! We think it’s important to highlight those things when they happen. So, without further ado, here’s a quick summary of three super fun things that happened in CT this week.
We’ve discovered another practical use for CT technology: sheep breeding.
That’s right, you heard that correctly. Sheep farmers in the UK are being encouraged to use CT technology to help boost the genetics and profitability of their sheep flocks. By utilizing CT scanners, researchers can identify outstanding animals in the breed based on measurements for weight and the percentage of fat, muscle, and bone in the animal. The data is a key contributor in determining the Estimated Breeding Value for each animal, and provides important information about certain physical characteristics in the animals that aren’t always obvious to the human eye. It’s a pretty unique application for the technology, but we love seeing the practical applications that are being found for CT.
There’s a new private chatroom for radiologists, and we’re all pretty excited about it.
This week the American College of Radiology opened up the virtual doors to Engage, an online community designed and built just for their members. It’s pretty much an private chatroom that’s exclusive to ACR members, aka approximately 37,000 radiologists. Members can join various communities within the platform based on their interests, browse/post/participate in discussion boards, and even access resource libraries that include radiology related articles, presentations, documents, videos and more. Still not sold? You can also upload your own materials to discuss with others, and use the Engage Directory to search for, find, and connect with other peers in the industry. It’s a pretty great concept, and we’re excited to see how it turns out!
If you don’t work in radiology then you might not know it, but radiologists are actually a pretty funny group of people. Our industry might come across as boring to the average onlooker, but there’s actually a lot of humor to be found in radiology. We’ve got our fair share of inside jokes and laughable moments. It’s a special kind of funny we refer to as “radiology humor”, and up until this point it was something only people working in the field knew about. That’s finally changing! This week #MyRadGirlfriend, a humor based comic about the relationship between a brilliant software engineer and a radiology resident, launched on Aunt Minnie. It’s a weekly series, and it’s bound to be packed full of radiology humor. We love that this is happening for a number of reasons, but most importantly because it’s a way of sharing an inside look at our industry’s humor with outsiders. Plus, which one of us couldn’t use a laugh after a long week of diagnosing?
There’s a lot going on in our industry, and yes, some of it is heavy and some of it is boring. Don’t ever forget that for every boring piece of news you hear about CT technology, there’s also something fun and innovative and exciting happening. Make an effort to focus on the positive things happening in our industry, and to share that information with your peers. Being a radiologist isn’t always easy or fun, but it’s the little things like these that make it just a little bit more enjoyable.