A blogging year one repost per day! But two today!
March 2023 began with an interesting adventure which took two posts to share.
Today’s adventure and an odd but interesting by-product on FB
Posted on by Neil
As I have already told you at 9.15 am I begin a heart test in the Nuclear Medicine Department at Wollongong Hospital. Last Friday I had a range of other tests which all proved normal and there is little reason to think this one will be different. Normal that is for a remarkably unfit guy pushing 80 years old.
Things have moved on at Wollongong Hospital since I last had this test done in 2014.
Wollongong Hospital is now home to Australia’s first digital gamma camera, and nuclear medicine patients will soon benefit from faster scans at lower radiation doses.
Director of Nuclear Medicine Associate Professor Barry Elison said the first patients were scanned with the state-of-the-art equipment last week, and already the feedback has been positive.
“We are thrilled that Wollongong Hospital is the first in Australia to have access to this brilliant technology,” he said.
“This new digital equipment allows us to complete the studies much quicker, with scans that might have previously taken 15 minutes completed in just four to five minutes,
“Not only is this more convenient for the patient, it means we can perform more studies on a daily basis, so patients get their results faster and treatment can commence sooner.”Wollongong Hospital leads the way in Nuclear Medicine with Australia’s first digital gamma camera — 19 August 2019
It cost $1.3 million!
This is the test:
An interesting by-way
In my last post about this I shared rhe prep info:
That of course is only part of the leaflet and I have been good having my last coffee ar 8.30 am yesterday. The nurse from the Nuclear Medicine Department rang me and I actually clarified if Shiraz was OK wth lunch. She gave the green light on that….
Meanwhile on Facebook a dear friend and former colleague had sent his best wishes with this note. Do compare it with the hospital leaflet above.
I searched the procedure using ChatGPT. This is what I found:
“A myocardial perfusion study is a type of medical imaging test that evaluates the blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is also known as a myocardial perfusion scan or a cardiac stress test.
During the test, a small amount of a radioactive tracer is injected into a vein in the arm. The tracer is then carried through the bloodstream and into the heart muscle, where it is taken up by the heart cells. A special camera is used to take pictures of the heart at rest and after it has been stressed, usually through exercise on a treadmill or through medication that simulates the effects of exercise.
The images show how well blood is flowing through the heart muscle, which can help detect areas of reduced blood flow or blockages in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart. This information can be used to diagnose coronary artery disease, assess the severity of the disease, and guide treatment decisions.
A myocardial perfusion study is a non-invasive procedure and is generally considered safe. However, as with any medical test that involves the use of radiation, there is a small risk of exposure to radiation. Your healthcare provider can discuss the risks and benefits of the test with you and determine whether it is appropriate for your particular situation.”
I fired back a groan about ChatBots:
What it plagiarised you mean. One does not need Chat GPT to discover what the test is. The leaflet from the hospital would have been written long before Chat GPT. I am pretty sure it is the same as it was in 2014 when I did the test before. Even if I had forgetten the bit about still radiating afterwards! And I am a grump about the Robot Writers; if AI generates a brilliant imitation of language at my request, fine. But I have written nothing. The BOT did without it really passing through my brain. Yes it is clever, but so is Google Translate — and useful too if at times erratic. But my using GT does not mean I speak and write Russian, Mandarin etc….
The hospital leaflet was in fact dated December 2017.
My friend responded:
Yes, I was experimenting, merely to see what it produced. My apologies if you found this in anyway offensive.
Of course I quickly told hin I had not been offended.
Just interested in fact. And yes, what an odd by-way!
What is today’s adventure costing me?
Maybe a taxi fare…. At the hospital:
$00.00
Yesterday’s adventure and political minefields
Posted on by Neil
As I reflect on what I saw and experienced yesterday at Wollongong Hospital I foresee some of it triggering some readers, including some of my own friends. Let me say upfront that I do have views on those issues but I do not wish to pursue them or discuss them here, nor will I welcome any comment about them. That you might think about them of course is welcome. I hope you do. But there is enough argy-bargy going on — especially about these matters — so I suggest keeping your thoughts to yourself. This is not to restrict your freedom in any way; rather it is to focus on the great things I learned in my small experience yesterday.
Wollongong is a front runner in cardiac medicine
The machine I experienced yesterday when I had my nuclear stress test and myocardial perfusion study was another level altogether from what I had experienced before. With permission I even took a picture of the actual machine, the one I had minutes before been sitting in.
When I got home I looked it up. I saw it promoted in this 2022 US video from Eisenhower Health.
On Facebook I said:
Wollongong is right up there eh! Revolutionary! Paradigm shift! The significance of this is just becoming apparent to me. This is way ahead of what I experienced at Wollongong Hospital in 2014 when I last had such a test — the one (you may recall) that I rounded off with a great plate of bangers and mash at City Diggers.
Tonight I will just have my pasta salad with bread and cheese at home.
And I wonder how much this scan would cost at this US hospital. Here is one answer: “Uninsured patients will likely pay $1,000-$5,000 for stress test and the analysis. A cardiovascular stress test costs about $3,800 on average nationally, according to NewChoiceHealth.com , but can get as high as $10,900. Prices range based on geographical location, with urban, metropolitan areas charging higher prices than rural areas.”
Today in The Gong it cost me as an old age pensioner ZERO DOLLARS! That is NO DOLLARS! ZIP! NONE!
Here is the free lunch.
Yes I know there is no such thing as a free lunch! And I know there is much serious thinking going on about how our wonderful but not perfect Australian health system can be sustained into the future. But I also know which party I want to see in power if that system is to have a fighting chance. Need I spell it out?
Three cheers for socialism of the positive and flexible kind, that’s all I will say!
And to be fair to the USA and concerning those shocking prices — if someone is insured the upfront cost of the procedure could reduce to around $400.
But I know where I prefer to be, eh!
Spectrum Dynamics is an Israeli firm
I happen to have very strong views on such matters as the Settlement Policy in Israel and I have no great love for the current Israeli government’s policies in that area and quite a few others. You may search this blog to see what I have said about such things.
I also am amazed by this life-saving machine.
I am very glad that Wollongong Hospital has one.
This would still be true if the machine was Chinese or Russian.
See? A minefield if ever there was one — and please don’t bother! You are welcome to your thoughts on the matter.
Back to me and the day at the hospital
There was a glitch though. The final scan quality was not the best, so they had to repeat it. That meant more waiting around, but the scan itself was only around ten minutes total. And was OK.
The results I get from my GP next week.
The Hospital staff were excellent.
Neil's Commonplace Book 