Radiologic Technologist: Am I Qualified to Be One?

A radiologic technologist, who can also be referred to as a radiographer, is a medical professional tasked with producing medical images of the body, commonly with an X-ray equipment, analyzing the results and referring them to physicians in order to help them make diagnosis and provide treatment for the sick and injured. Should you be interested in taking on this medical career, formal education and training is the primary requirement, which can be given by hospitals, colleges, universities and radiology tech schools.

The term radiologic technologist is a more general name for different specializations in this field of medicine. One can be a radiographer, a sonographer or therapist, among many others, and use advanced radiographic equipment for taking high quality images of the different parts of the body.

As a radiologic technologist, you can specialize in different areas, examples of which are Diagnostic Radiography for examining bones, cavities and foreign object in the body, Sonography which employs high-frequency ultrasound to take images of the body, and Radiotherapy which uses radiation to reduce or eliminate cancerous cells. Other examples are Fluoroscopy, CT or Computed Tomography, MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nuclear Medicine and Mammography.

A radiologic technologist’s primary responsibility is to prepare patients for the scanning procedure that they will undergo and explaining to them everything they need to know in order to successfully capture images. Since X-rays are the common equipment used, they must make sure that patients are not wearing any interfering objects like jewelries and ensure that they get utmost protection from too much radiation thru the use of lead shields.

Radiographers make use radiographic equipment by properly positioning it at the correct angle and height over the area of the patient’s body that needs to be scanned. With the help of an instrument similar to a measuring tape, they are able to determine the appropriate thickness of the area to be scanned and control the equipment to provide images of the right detail, contrast and density. They then position an X-ray film underneath the body part to be scanned and make the exposure, after which the film gets developed for analysis.

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