Youngstown Orthopaedic MRI earns gold seal

Youngstown Orthopaedic Associates has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the advanced MRI unit it launched in December 2009.

The accreditation by the American College of Radiology (ACR) includes the ACR’s gold seal of accreditation, which represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety recognized.

It is awarded only to MRI facilities that meet ACR practice guidelines and technical standards in a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists.

“This accreditation helps set us apart in terms of image quality and patient safety,” said Beth White, director of specialty imaging and marketing services at YOA. “Accreditation is becoming increasingly important to patients, doctors, insurance companies and employers.”

MRI is a noninvasive medical test that uses magnetic fields to produce images of the body to help physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions.

YOA’s MRI unit is a state-of-the-art General Electric 1.5-tesla high-definition unit that brings unprecedented clarity, speed and energy savings to the process.

Pictures are much sharper than traditional MRI units, and a typical scan takes 15-18 minutes, instead of 40-45 minutes.

The YOA unit uses about 40 percent less energy than traditional MRIs and recycles some 99 percent of the cryogen used to keep it cool.

Youngstown Orthopaedic Associates is the Youngstown area’s largest orthopedic surgery practice, with nine certified orthopedic surgeons.

In addition to hip replacements, knee replacements, spine surgery and many other forms of orthopedic surgery, the practice offers sports medicine, therapy and imaging services. More information is available at www.youngstownortho.com.

The ACR is a national organization serving more than 34,000 diagnostic and interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians and medical physicists with programs on medical imaging, radiation oncology and other health care services.