by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | March 07, 2022
From the March 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
David Navarrete, director of research initiatives and accredited education for Sky Factory, said the idea is to move beyond distraction techniques and allow young patients to be more impacted by their surroundings.
“When you walk into a space, your body gets a sense of whether that space is safe, whether it's fun to explore, or whether (you’re) apprehensive, and this is a chemical and neural change that happens in your brain,” Navarrete said. “If you're teaching your kid that when you're stressed or anxious, you’ve got to seek a distraction, in a way, you're rewiring their response to stress. Whereas if you teach them to be calm and that they can master the situation by just being aware of their environment, particularly when it has a view to nature, then they also become more resilient.”
Facilities with SkyFactory installations see the impact it has on their patients.
"By using new wide bore MR technology and teaming the equipment with the Luminous SkyCeiling experience, we have found pediatric patients are much better able to cope with their MR examinations, and we have noticed a considerable drop in cancelled examinations," said Keith Gray, quality manager at Benson Radiology in South Australia.
Tech help
New technologies can also help speed up exam times and help decrease the discomfort of exams for young patients.
Carestream and Fujifilm both offer long-length, single-shot detectors — Carestream’s is the DRX-L and Fujifilm’s is called the FDR D-EVO GL — with large fields of view that capture long-length images in a single exposure.
“It really helps alleviate discomfort for a patient, particularly for a small child being imaged for [something] like a scoliosis exam,” said Hamman, of Carestream. “They only have to stand very still for that one second that it takes to acquire the image. It's much better for treatment planning as well, since there is no need to manipulate and stitch images together due to patient movement. And it also helps to reduce repeats due to patient movement, as the image is acquired in about a second compared to 15 seconds or more with a multi-shot DR solution.
Nicole Lucking, senior radiologic technologist at Shriners Children's Twin Cities, uses Fujifilm's FDR D-EVO GL detector for lower extremity and spine exams, and sees its benefits.
“With pediatrics, as fast as we can get through the exam, the better,” Lucking said. “You are able to hold their attention and keep them from worrying about what could be next, if you can get through the exam efficiently, it's best for everybody. We do most of our X-rays standing if the patient can stand, and I think that helps a lot, too, because it's less intimidating. When we have to lay them down, they feel less in control and sometimes associate lying down with having a procedure done.”
