Looking inside the Human Body: Who's who in Radiology - Fun Kids

Body has swallowed Professor Hallux’s keys to the fridge, after hearing Nurse Nanobot tell him he needed more iron in his diet! Whoops!

Now Body isn’t very well and he’s in lots of pain! The only thing is, they need to know exactly where the keys are in Body’s body in order to get them out!

Professor Hallux, Nurse Nanobot and Body have made their way to the Imaging department in their local hospital.

There are lots of medical experts in Radiology, and they’re all normal people like lots of other grown-ups! It can be pretty tricky to guess what they all do just by looking them.

From clinical radiologists and radiographers to sonographers and medical physicists, there are loads of different roles and people who work in a real Radiology Department. Here are some of the people you might find and discover the different jobs they do.

Radiographers

Radiographers are trained to operate the equipment that take the images, which could be X-rays, CT scans, nuclear scanning or MRIs – or a combination of them!
They are super clever to know exactly how to work all the different machines and make sure the consultant gets exactly the right picture
Whilst it sounds like it’ll take ages to do all that, most scans can be taken very quickly indeed!
And all you have to do is stay very still so a clear image is taken.

Clinical Radiologists

Radiologists are in charge of deciding the best imaging tests to do, looking at the patients symptoms and coming up with a plan of attack!
They figure out what images are right for each patient.
And when the images have been made, they’re the ones who to read the images to pick up signs of disease or damage to the body.
If there’s something large inside that shouldn’t be there, then that will be pretty easy to spot. Like someone who’s swallowed a set of keys to Professor Hallux’s very important fridge!

Sonographers

Sonographers are the experts who undertake ultrasound scans. The sonographer is trained to produce images that will allow a medical diagnosis to be made.
A sonographer works closely with a radiologist to derive the most accurate diagnosis for a patient. When they take images, they will pass on the results to your doctor or the radiologist.

Medical Physicists

Medical Physicists are boffins who set up all the different machinery and fix it when it goes wrong.
They make sure that the machines work perfectly to get the best possible pictures of the body, and make sure that the precise amount of radiation is used.
Medical physicists are in charge of keeping everyone safe and sound, and making sure they get better too!

Click here for a virtual tour of a real Imaging Department!