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The Eyes of Modern Medicine

The ability to see inside the human body without surgery may be the most significant advance in the history of medicine. With technologies such as X-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),ultrasound and nuclear medicine, physicians no longer must resort to guesswork or risky exploratory surgery to diagnose many diseases and injuries. Radiologists - physicians with advanced training in these sophisticated techniques - can now create detailed images to diagnose and characterize health problems throughout the body with unprecedented accuracy. With the information provided by radiologists, physicians can tailor a treatment plan that is most likely to be successful for the individual patient. In some cases, specialists called interventional radiologists can also treat many conditions that once required surgery. Using X-rays or other imaging techniques to guide them, needles, tubes and other miniaturized tools are inserted through small nicks in the skin, using X-rays or other imaging techniques to guide them.

Furthermore, Adventist Imaging Network recently adopted a system called PACS (Picture Archiving Communication System) to assist the radiologists in the diagnostic process. PACS takes away the need for film because after the image is taken, it goes directly into the computer. The radiologists have special computer screens in each hospital that allow them to view high quality images for diagnosing diseases. Additionally, there is an internet-based system called Web1000 that your referring physicians can use to see radiology images for their offices.

The Radiology Departments of Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital, Adventist GlenOaks Hospital, and Adventist Bolingbrook Medical Center offers a complete range of modern radiology techniques to diagnose medical problems, as well as state-of-the-art non-surgical Interventional Radiology treatments. We also have three free-standing imaging centers: DuPage Imaging, Grant Square Imaging and Westmont MRI.

Our doctors have authored 140 scientific papers and book chapters over the last 10 years and have been leaders in bringing the latest technologies to patients. In 1977, for example, one of the first CT scanners in Illinois was installed at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital.

Other "firsts" include:

• The first interventional radiology procedure performed in Illinois to treat a patient with a device called the Wallstent, a wire mesh tube used to prop open clogged blood vessels (1986).
• The first TIPS procedure (a non-surgical interventional radiology treatment for liver failure) in the Western suburbs of Chicago (1990).
• The first non-university hospital to offer computer-assisted mammography in Illinois (1996).
• The first to perform uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) in Illinois (April 1998). UFE is a non-surgical treatment for fibroids that is an alternative to hysterectomy.
• The first ultrasound practice in the Chicago area to be accredited by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.
• The first Poplatiel Aneurysm Stent Grafting (Dick Cheny) Procedure in the Adventist Health System (2005).