Rich Felker
@neil The degree to which medical facilities with MRI machines ignore safety of a deadly device on premises and rely on human conformance to policy in order for people not to get killed is just baffling and infuriating.
It's like if they left loaded guns on the waiting room tables and put up signs asking people please to not use them.
An MRI requires redundant levels of physical lockouts making it so safety does not depend on human operators, patients, or others present not making mistakes.
Rich Felker
@qux2000 @neil That's probably one option, but entire room lockout (e.g. 2 doors, inner sealed if outer isn't locked and there's anything detected between them) is what comes to mind.
Pepperstache
@dalias @neil I’m not sure how you could design an interlock that would make an MRI safe against people bringing metallic objects near the magnet, though. The magnet is permanently energised, so it’s dangerous even when not scanning. Would the interlock need to quench the magnet?
Rich Felker
@qux2000 @neil Also: I think the fact that the magnet is always-on is not obvious to patients or maybe even medical staff, and this is part of what makes it so dangerous. Even if people understand "you can't have metal with you during the scan", they don't necessarily understand it's potentially deadly to bring metal objects anywhere near it even before/afterwards.
Pepperstache
@dalias @neil Neil had the same idea. It’s interesting - I don’t know enough about metal detectors to know if you could build one the size of a reasonable airlock chamber (which will need to hold a non magnetic wheelchair), and also be sensitive enough to detect anything a 3T magnet would grab. Maybe you could
Rich Felker
@qux2000 @neil In theory, the MRI machine itself should be able to do that without a lot of modification if positioned correctly relative to the chamber.
And that's in line with what I'm saying - these devices should be produced with the right safety protocols integrated, not as an afterthought mostly depending on compliance by humans.
Rich Felker
@nemobis I mean yeah, but being aware guns are dangerous doesn't prevent accidental gun deaths when they're not properly secured.
The point is that you can't rely on people not making mistakes and doing stupid things as the only thing between a deadly instrument and someone dying. You need physical barriers that can't be bypassed without clear intent to do harm and time for others to intervene.
Nemo_bis 🌈
@dalias Maybe they expect everyone to have watched enough Doctor House to be aware of the dangers. https://www.auntminnie.com/clinical-news/mri/article/15578401/what-tvs-house-teaches-us-about-mri-and-safety
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