How Access to Diagnostic Imaging is Changing the Game for Young Athletes

In the movie Friday Night Lights, staring Billy Bob Thornton and Tim McGraw, Permian High School star running back Boobie Miles injures his knee in a home football game. The next day, a local orthopedic physician evaluates his injury and asks Boobie to get an MRI at the closest clinic in Midland, TX—home to Permian’s rival high school. At the clinic, the doctor reviews the MRI scans and tells Boobie he has a torn ACL. Boobie can’t believe it. “You from Midland! You don’t want me to play,” he snaps. “Who[‘s] paying you?”

A Need for Imaging in Smaller Communities

A football championship may not be on the line for every American who lies down on an MRI table, but many face the same hassle and discomfort that Boobie did, traveling hours to access the closest MRI facility. Thanks to shrinking populations and the high costs of operating an imaging facility, many small-town clinics have shuttered. Patients are left on their own, forced to receive their testing in an unfamiliar town hours away, staffed by clinicians they’ve never met and may not see again.

When industry experts think about this problem, they often focus on older cancer patients—and that makes sense, given the aging population in rural areas and the special challenges that this group faces if they must travel long distances for imaging. However, it affects all members of these communities, including those at low risk of cancer. Young people like Boobie are also vulnerable: Over 30 million children participate in organized sports each year, and about 3.5 million will experience an injury as a result of this. Prompt and accurate diagnosis of the injury is the key to proper treatment and recovery, and diagnostic imaging has been a major tool in modernizing how we treat sports injuries.

Diagnostic Imaging Equipment

When children don’t have access to accurate diagnosis of their injuries, they may face lifelong consequences—but while X-rays are relatively easy to access, more advanced equipment like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT scanners are rarely found in rural areas and smaller towns. These are necessary to properly diagnose soft-tissue injuries that X-rays can’t catch—but at prices +$1 million, they’re simply out of reach for small clinics.

To cope with this, smaller community clinics, like ImageWorks in Richmond, Indiana, are turning to pre-owned medical equipment—machines that are no longer needed at larger facilities, but have many years left in their useful lives. With them, clinics can stay open and doctors can provide more accurate diagnosis and treatment of sports-related injuries than by physical examinations alone. Many physician clinics have found that pre-owned equipment is the solution to their financial challenges and opens the door to better serve their communities. To find out how your clinic can join them, reach out to us.