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A Career in Radiography

One of the most exciting careers paths in medicine is radiography. Radiographers get to work with cutting-edge technology, directly impacting their patients’ lives. There is a lot of room for new people to enter the profession as the role of radiography in medicine is constantly expanding. Anyone that is looking for a career path that balances the roles of interacting with technology and people will love being a radiographer.

What Do Radiographers Do?

There are two main branches of radiography. The first branch of radiography is diagnostic radiography. Diagnostic radiographers use sophisticated equipment and imaging techniques to create detailed images of parts of the human anatomy. These images are used by doctors to diagnose both illnesses and injuries.

There are many different kinds of techniques diagnostic radiographers use to create images of the human body. The most common is the X-ray, an imagining technique that goes underneath the skin and tissues to create images of the bones and cavities of the human body.

Ultrasound is a technique that uses sound waves to produce images of the body. It is most commonly used in obstetrics to produce images of a fetus, but it is also used for many other diagnostic applications.

Fluoroscopy uses radioactive dye to create a detailed image of the digestive tract. Computed tomography (CT) scans provide images of cross-sections of the body. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses powerful magnets to create highly detailed, 3D images of the body.

Nuclear medicine uses radioactive tracers injected into the body to examine how organs in the body are functioning. Angiography is a technique to create images of the blood vessels.

As it is plainly clear, there are many career paths available to those who go into diagnostic radiography, and the frontiers of the field are being pushed further outward all the time.

The other branch of radiography is therapeutic radiography. While diagnostic radiography is simply used to create images of the body, therapeutic radiography is actually used to treat patients. Therapeutic radiography is primarily used in the treatment of cancer, using radiation to eradicate the cancer cells growing in the body.

by COD Newsroom

Who Should Pursue a Path in Radiography?

Anyone that has a love of both machines and people will find a career in radiography highly rewarding. Radiographers have to love science, and they need to be able to understand the ways that highly sophisticated pieces of machinery are operated. They also have to have great people skills as most of their patients will be anxious or even fearful when they are undergoing radiographic imaging or treatment.

A career in radiography can be pursued by attending a school that instructs students in all the latest radiographic techniques. There are lots of great schools out there that offer training in radiography, such as Sanford Brown College.

Millions of people are treated by radiographers every year. It is a very rewarding field that offers its practitioners a lot of job security and a great feeling of satisfaction from helping others. It is a career path that people interested in medicine should give strong consideration to.

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Jyotsna Ramani is a passionate writer and an avid globetrotter. She had a knack for writing since her early years, though that was mostly letters to her penpals and jotting her thoughts down in her "Dear Diary". Over the years, she realized how her hobby could turn into a full time career and she started writing web content, books and pieces for local magazines. There has been no looking back ever since. Follow Jyotsna Ramani at Google+

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