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by emptyroads 332 days ago
I was wondering "why would the street view be relevant?"

Turns out, it's pretty relevant to the situation - especially how the unauthorized access was possible.

This wasn't your typical hospital MRI. This is basically your local tanning salon that somehow acquired an MRI machine.

3 comments

I wasn't going to click that link but now I have and honestly - that is mildly terrifying.

I don't understand how such a dangerous machine can end up in a place that looks like that.

If it weren't so dangerous, I'd love to pop along to my local tanning salon and get an MRI scan. I've always been quite interested to see an MRI of my brain. Alas, I'm stuck with waiting for some kind of medical testing to need some test subjects to scan, or a university student needing someone to learn to use an MRI on. Or I guess have a head injury serious enough to need an MRI, but that's less desirable
In Poland you can get one without doctors referal (for CT you need one because of ionizing radiation exposure), it cost between 100-200$ in normal, reputable hospital (not one like from the street view).
Nice to be on a country where these facilities are not overwhelmed
Other way around, you are paying money to go to the head of the line, while the people with medical issues get it for free - but have to wait.
Which I wouldn’t assume based on an HN post.
You can buy a plane ticket.
Sadly that's a little too far for me to pop over for a day
It isn't dangerous as long as you follow the safety protocol. This guy was very unlucky as he was wearing a weight training device made of metal, not just a watch or earring.
That's mostly true, but we're still finding new and interesting ways MRIs can kill people. E.g., non-magnetic metals are often safe, bit there was that guy who had his brain cooked as a spinal implant was the wrong length and focused the RF energy into his head. The additional protocol we developed is that objects can be certified safe for specific MRIs but not for all of them (and that being certified safe for a bigger machine doesn't say anything about safety in the presence of smaller machines).

Yes, they're pretty safe nowadays, but there's a lot of energy that gets dumped into a human body during an MRI, and I'd bet my last nickel that we haven't found every way that can cause problems.

I would prefer to have a trained professional operating my MRI scanner as opposed to someone who read the manual for 10 mins
I've seen many people make 3D prints of their own brain.

Once, I heard a story where some company was trying to get MRI test participants, and if you agreed they offered to print your brain for you as one of the perks.

Turns out, they gave everyone the same brain, like they would just always use the same file when 3D printing it. Probably had a box of pre-printed ones in the back. Dishonest, but I guess how would you ever find out?

There are providers that cater to the "I just want to know" market: https://prenuvo.com/
You can volunteer for a study. Check for flyers at your hospital asking for volunteers. (Especially psychiatric institutions - they love brain MRIs for their research.)
Yeah, hopefully someone will want to do a study on autism, adhd, trans women or all of the above
That size of building is relatively normal for a non-hospital MRI facility.
What we are learning is that "non hospital" medical facilities suck.

I can tell you that I don't trust you as a doctor unless you are physically located in a hospital, preferably the larger the better.

If I have an appendicitis on the way to my normal procedure, I want to be within less than 100M of an emergency room already.

Small scale/small time medical offices were a mistake and I'll never change my mind.

That just doesn't make sense to me. If I'm going for a regular checkup or a non-surgical appointment, there's absolutely no reason that I need my doctor's office to be within a hospital complex. Sure, I could have an emergency on the way to my non-emergency appointment, but I could also have an emergency on the way to the grocery store or the gym or the park, and I don't demand that those facilities also be built within a hospital.
> What we are learning is that "non hospital" medical facilities suck.

That's really not true, just because you have one bad example does not mean they all are. In general the non-hospital facilities just do one thing, and they do it very very well.

> I can tell you that I don't trust you as a doctor unless you are physically located in a hospital, preferably the larger the better.

That's terrible!! Really. Putting the doctor in a hospital makes him a hospital employee usually, you are asking for the end of private practice for Doctors, you are asking for the end of personal relationships with doctors.

Agreed. It's also for patient convenience. More than once I was at a small medical office and was told that the doctor had prescribed a certain diagnostic test for which the facility didn't have the equipment for. So I make an appointment at a real hospital, and then make a follow-up appointment at the small medical office for reviewing the results. It's tiring.
You would have to do that anyway. Just because you are physically located in the hospital for your checkup does not mean there is magically some availability for this procedure.

They would schedule you, and you come back.

And yet one of the most renowned dermatologists in my region only worked in clinic

I've also known hospitals to refer people to clinics too.