The ever-changing landscape of radiology sees frequent leaps in technology, enabling radiologists to diagnose and treat disease in ways never before possible. RA board-certified radiologist and musculoskeletal imaging subspecialist Dr. Timothy R. Jones addresses questions about what’s new and what’s ahead in the industry.
Q: What inspired you to go into Radiology?
I became interested in radiology in medical school when we would go down to the radiology department to look at studies on our patients. Often those results would be key in our management decisions. We had questions and radiology often had the answers.
Q: Are there new technologies you are using now or see on the horizon that you find especially fascinating or exciting?
A great thing about radiology is that it is constantly changing and its technology improving. I had a professor in residency who became a radiologist during World War II. At that time the field was primarily X-rays. Over the course of his career, he saw the introduction of fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine, mammography, ultrasound, angiography, CT, and MRI. Since then, the field has continued to progress with the development of new techniques and applications such as remote reading, CT angiography, CT colonography, digital breast tomosynthesis, 3T MRI, and molecular imaging. Given this constant change, radiology today shows little resemblance to what my former professor experienced.
Q: What are you hoping to see in the future of the industry?
The most talked-about recent advances in radiology relate to Artificial Intelligence. AI is going to influence medicine and radiology in many ways. One exciting way that many people haven't heard about is in shortening the time of an MRI scan. By using AI techniques, researchers have been able to perform scans up to 10 times faster than traditional techniques and obtain images with no significant differences in diagnostic quality. Once these techniques are fully developed, an entire MRI scan may be complete in 5 minutes! I’m excited about these innovations in patient care.
For more information about Dr. Jones, please visit his profile