While the idea of MRI safety should be a priority every year, 2021 provides us with a special opportunity to reflect. As mentioned in a previous post, 2021 is the twentieth anniversary of the most infamous MRI accident in the United States: the death of young Michael Colombini. On this twentieth anniversary it’s appropriate to not only consider that tragedy, but to assess the general state of MRI safety and the expected practices to keep patients (and caregivers) safe.
In another post we shared with you a chart showing MRI adverse event reports to the US FDA over time, giving us a portrait of both our trajectory and our current position relative to MR safety. That portrait is not at all flattering. Despite additional decades of knowledge and experience, we’re doing worse… not better. It’s also worth mentioning that this data is only for adverse events classified as MRI, so when an implant or medical device malfunctions because of exposure to MRI, it will typically get classified under that device’s product code (so those adverse events, some with grave consequences, aren’t represented in the data in this chart).
So what is appropriate to do for this 20th anniversary?
That’s a question with more answers than can fit into this individual post, but there have been some really good suggestions appearing on a Twitter campaign that fired up this year, The Year of MRI Safety. Daily posts on that account have provided observations and recommendations on a number of MRI safety problems (and likely fixes). These have included:
- COVID’s effects on Magnetic Resonance Safety
- ‘Modest Proposals’ to improve MRI safety
- What CMS could do, if they wanted, to improve MR safety
- How increasing Magnetic Resonance Safety can decrease costs
- Minimum MRI safety standards providers should adopt
- Things we think are proxies for MR safety, but aren’t
- What to do if you find yourself stuck in a bad safety environment
- Specific MR safety knowledge minimums for radiologists, techs, administrators, and physicists
- Magnetic Resonance Safety and radiology residency
- “MRI Safely” pledges, similar to Image Gently pledges
- And much more…
We recommend you embrace this twentieth anniversary and give your own practice a long, unflinching look. If you’re not sure how or where to begin with that, we recommend that you check out the ‘Year of MRI Safety’ Twitter account and follow their weekly threads as they walk you through different aspects of MRI safety. Read through just a few weekly-themed discussions, and you’ll probably have very productive beginnings to your investigation laid out for you.