On The Learning Curve .....

One of the perks to being a journalist, finding and developing stories to share with the public, is that you learn a lot of 'neat stuff' along the way ..... you hope, of course, that the public is the better for your story ..... but, at the same time, you also hope to expand your own body of knowledge, your level of awareness, and your expertise as a journalist.

Me? I'm a work-in-progress with a long way to go ..... but I'm enjoying the work, and the 'neat stuff' I pick up along the way.

These last couple of weeks, writing an article for The Odessan Magazine, it was my chance to learn more about CT Scans. ‘CT’ is short for computed tomography. It was originally known as computed axial tomography, hence the name ‘CAT scan’ that is still commonly used. It is an imaging method where a series of two-dimensional X-ray images, taken around a single axis of rotation, produce three-dimensional images of an object’s internal structure. The technology is employed in a number of fields, but most often in medicine, where it is used by doctors to examine the brain, the heart and other internal organs of a living patient’s body.

Nowadays, the phrase, 'CAT scan' is almost ubiquitous, frequently heard on just about any hospital or medical show - dramatic, documentary, whatever - on television. What I didn't know, though, was that CAT scans represent one of the greatest victories of 'The Battle of the Beat.'

Development of early CT scanner technology in the late 60s was carried out at Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd. (better known, today as EMI). Some say EMI financed the research with profits from The Beatles, which remains one of the most commercially successful bands in the history of popular music. In 1971, EMI's Chief of the Medical Research Division, Godfrey Hounsfield, scanned the first patient at a hospital in Wimbledon. Here is one account of that story from England's Whittington Hospital.

I remain on the learning curve .....