While the exact size of radiology’s carbon footprint remains unknown, the energy-intensive nature of its equipment makes it a significant contributor to the healthcare sector’s 10 percent share of carbon emissions. A single MRI, for example, expends the energy equivalent to powering 12 US homes and one CT unit equates to three US homes.
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Doris Wang, MD, PhD, presents the keynote address at the 2024 annual Research Conference. In her talk, Wang will discuss how she uses focused ultrasound to treat tremor disorders, as well as her translational research in developing closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat gait disorders in Parkinson’s disease.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) currently recommends that women begin breast cancer screening mammograms at age 40 and receive them every two years thereafter. Bonnie Joe, MD, PhD, Division Chief of Breast Imaging at UCSF’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, contends that biennial screenings are not frequent enough and the standard should instead be annual screenings.
Many veterans with Gulf War illness report losing their sense of smell. Because anosmia is recognized as a potential early symptom of diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, Linda Chao, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, has sought to identify if anosmia in GW veterans could be predictive of impaired cognitive function.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), plays a pivotal role in healthcare, determining treatment paths and eligibility for procedures like hip or knee replacements. Yet, approximately 90% of the global population lacks access to this vital technology. The prospect of a more compact, affordable, and easily installable MRI machine raises an intriguing question: How many lives could be saved, and how much suffering could be alleviated with improved access to this transformative technology?
A decade ago, Thomas Link, MD, PhD, was senior author on a paper in J Bone Miner Res1 that suggested that severe deficits in cortical bone quality are responsible for fragility fractures in postmenopausal diabetic women. Building on that work, our Bone Quality Research Lab has developed a technique to visualize intra-cortical vessels and assess the structural changes that can degrade bone strength.