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42 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 23, 2004 Medical partnership breaks ground at imaging site By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune A formal groundbreaking Wednesday celebrated the start of a new building that will house two state-of-the-art diagnostic tools for physicians. Oregon Advanced Imaging will construct the 10,000-square-foot structure in the Navigator’s Landing development off Biddle Road near the Medford airport. The building will provide office space for OAI and a home for a new MRI scanner and a new device that combines two imaging technologies. OAI is a partnership of Providence Medford Medical Center, Rogue Valley Medical Center and local radiologists who work together as Medford Radiological Group. The new building will provide ample space for OAI to work and grow, said Carol Flinn, executive director. She said health care analysts expect the demand for many kinds of medical and diagnostic images to increase dramatically over the next few years. Flinn said OAI will leave its present office space at 12 Myrtle St. in east Medford when the building is completed sometime next summer. Advertisement "Medical imaging" was once limited to basic X-ray images, but over the past few decades increasingly sophisticated equipment has given physicians ever-more-complex pictures of the body. MRI (for magnetic resonance imaging) scanners, for example, use powerful magnets to produce images of internal body structures such as brain, spine, nerves and joints. Flinn said OAI’s new MRI will be less confining for large patients and less intimidating for people who tend toward claustrophobia. The tube inside which patients lie during their exam will be much shorter, and the opening inside the tube will be much larger. "The whole machine has shrunk," said Steve Cool, OAI’s imaging director. Despite its smaller size, the new scanner is equipped with more powerful magnets that will produce more detailed images, Cool said. Medical imaging services in Medford also are provided by Medford Open Imaging, which operates an MRI scanner with a similar "open" design, but employs a magnet on a large plate above the patient rather than a donut. The partnership also will install a new scanner that produces images of internal tissues and analyzes cell metabolism. The PET/CT scanner uses radioactive tracers and X-rays to give doctors highly defined, three-dimensional images from inside a patient's body. Doctors use the critical information to treat conditions such as cancer and heart disease. "You can see how cancers are responding to treatment," Cools said. "That helps oncologists decide whether the treatment is working or whether they need to change gears." Reach reporter Bill Kettlerat 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers