International Physician Update

Radiology Services Go Global

Increasingly, neuroradiologist Davis Yousem advises overseas clients about MRI protocols and reads MRIs on request.

Beaches may be plentiful on the idyllic island of Bermuda (population just 50,000), but MRIs are in short supply. The island has only one MR scanner in its sole hospital—hardly enough to handle a steady stream of visitors with injuries from moped accidents to head traumas requiring imaging.

Overwhelmed, the hospital approached Johns Hopkins International for help. Today, radiologists David Yousem and David Bluemke and their teams advise the Bermuda facility on the protocols to perform the studies, read their MRIs for them, as needed, and offer expertise on the full range of neuroradiology and body MRI techniques—MRI, MR angiography, functional MRI, diffusion and perfusion imaging, and 3-D reconstructions.

The goal, Yousem explains, is to promote the Bermuda radiologists’ independence and teach them what they need to know. “We have a great relationship,” Yousem says. As Hopkins’ director of neuroradiology, Yousem organizes that piece and Bluemke, clinical director of MRI, oversees the body MRI portion. In January, Hopkins’ radiology faculty held a seminar in Bermuda to offer guidance in effective utilization of MRI scanning.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins International is working on a similar project in Turkey in connection with a new hospital, scheduled to open in early 2004. Yousem will use the Bermuda model of electronic MRI consults to assist the Andalou group in providing its own services. “We have trained eight outstanding research fellows from Turkey,” Yousem notes. The tie with these individuals “will strengthen our communication with Turkey’s new hospital. And Nafi Aygun, a faculty member in Hopkins Radiology, who is also Turkish, will be a fantastic liaison.”

Looking ahead, Yousem sees great potential in global time differences. “Nowadays, people want 24-hour image interpretation service,” he says. “As we build relationships, we can share shifts without requiring extra hours on the job.”

Yousem notes too that Hopkins’ teleradiology costs less than what an insurance company would pay for a patient to travel to the United States. And as a side benefit, Hopkins can provide subspecialty expertise rarely available in small island nations. “They can pick our brains whenever they want,” Yousem says. “That kind of support is priceless to both patients and doctors.”