AIM's medical director, head radiologist and inventor of our whole body scan, Dr. Raj Attariwala, is a star on the radio!
Dr. Raj, as his patients affectionately call him, was interviewed by Ian Power for CKNW's Talk to the Experts this past Sunday, February 23, about why he set up AIM Medical Imaging, how AIM saves lives, why patients should consider MRI whole body screening, and much more. Dr. Attariwala also fielded call-in questions from CKNW listeners.
Transcribed below is an excerpt of Sunday's show featuring Dr. Attariwala explaining in his own words why he set up AIM Medical Imaging. To hear the full interview (and to learn about MRI from a renowned expert) click the link at the bottom of the page:
Ian Power: I've been to AIM Medical Imaging myself, I've had my elbow imaged, found a torn tendon and ligament, thank you very much. And what I found to be really cool about the whole experience--well, the experience in itself is very interesting--not knowing seems to me the biggest worry. Now, fortunately, mine is a fairly minor thing, I will give you that, but no sooner had I had the test--the MRI done--I was sitting in an office with you and you were pointing to the screen and showing me things I didn't even know I had belonging inside my arm! And I think that has to be a real comfort to a lot of your patients.
Dr. Attariwala: Oh, it is. You know, the biggest thing is, people actually just want to know what's going on, and a picture's a thousand words and I basically am a storyteller. I can look at the pictures and say 'Ok, this is exactly what's going on: this is where it hurts, this is why it hurts', and, quite commonly for a lot of the bone and joint things I can tell you what you need to do to make it better, just because I've been working in Sports Medicine for, well I guess going on 13 years now with the Vancouver Giants...
One of the big things, and actually there's groups throughout United States that are now actually realizing that radiologists need to get out of their dark offices and actually start talking to patients and show them what's going on, show them the amount of information that we have, and what I actually find as well is that dialogue that we have with patients is very useful for patients to understand what's going on. And we get a lot of family doctor feedback basically saying "Thank God", you guys showed us what's going on to the patient. So now, when they go to see their family doctors it's quick, the patients already know what's going on, they know what needs to be done next, and it's a matter of making things nice and smooth and simple.
And then typically: patients, once you explain what's going on, they hop on Dr. Google, and we tell them where to look, and they can get an idea of what's coming and what it means.
I think that provides a lot of important information that basically, I would want when I'm a patient, and that's why I set it up.
(Transcripted quotations start at 11:48 minutes into the broadcast).