What is Imaging Engineering?

Medical imaging technologies have led to a number of breakthroughs in the medical world, and are a crucial piece of equipment for hospitals, medical clinics, and research institutions everywhere.

Like all equipment, medical imaging devices need to be maintained and kept in pristine shape in order to ensure the most accurate and reliable results. For many patients, their treatments, wellbeing, and even their lives depend on imaging results, making the maintenance of these instruments profoundly important.

That is where imaging engineering comes in. Imaging engineers install, maintain, and calibrate diagnostic imaging equipment. This equipment can include MRI or CT equipment, arthroscopic surgical imaging devices, radiology equipment, and much more.

Imaging engineers specialize in different equipment depending on the field of medical imaging that they are in and can range from x-ray imaging as in CT scans, ultrasound, magnetism via MRIs, radioactive pharmaceuticals, or light imaging.

Each form of imaging has its specific uses and is posed with a unique set of challenges. X-ray imaging technologies, for example, come with a radiation exposure risk factor. The work of imaging engineers has significantly reduced the amount of exposure necessary since the technology’s introduction in 1895. Modern x-rays use solid-state electronics and require just milliseconds over exposure time.

Technologies like ultrasounds and magnetic imaging come with their own unique limitations — obstacles that may be reduced or overcome by research and innovation.

Breakthroughs in imaging technology are thanks to imaging engineers. While a number of imaging engineers may work for a hospital, clinic, or imaging technology manufacturing company, a number of them still will work as researchers — improving the imaging technologies of today and developing groundbreaking imaging technologies of tomorrow.

New imaging techniques and technologies allow for less invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures while also providing more useful information and insight into a patient’s condition.

Whether conducting research on or maintaining and repairing medical imaging equipment, imaging engineers are crucial members of the medical community. They ensure that equipment provides efficient and reliable results that doctors and patients can trust, and are always developing innovative and less intrusive ways to get necessary medical data.

SOURCES:
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/e/What-Does-an-Imaging-Engineer-Do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_imaging