RSTI FocalSpot 2017.2 > Wearing Many Hats

32 YEARS OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING EXCELLENCE // ISSUE 2.17 #THINKRSTI

NEWS FROM THE LEADER IN RADIOLOGICAL SERVICE TRAINING // RADIOLOGICAL SERVICE TRAINING INSTITUTE

#WEARINGMANYHATS WHICH SKILLS MATTER MOST?

NEW ALLIANCE WITH ALLTECH!

NEW MRI COURSES!

FIND THE FULL 2017-18 RSTI TRAINING COURSE INSERT INSIDE // VISIT RSTI ONLINE @ RSTI-TRAINING.COM THE PRESIDENT’S LENS // 2-3

COURSE SCHEDULE // INSERT

NEW! ALLTECH AND RSTI // 4

WE’VE GOT HOLOGIC COVERED // 11

DAVE’S RAVE // 6

MIKE’S TECH TIP // 13

EXCHANGE THE FUTURE // 8-9

RSTI STORE // 15

STATE OF OH REG. NO. 93-09-1377T // ©2017 RSTI | DESIGN BY MOSS MEDIA

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE AN IMAGING SERVICE ENGINEER TODAY? FROM THE LENS OF DALE COVER // PRESIDENT, RSTI

This is a list of some of the skill sets (hats) required to be a high-level Imaging Service Professional: Mechanical engineering Electronic engineering Hydraulic systems Pneumatic systems Understand various disciplines within physics Competent navigation through multiple computer operating systems such as Windows of all different flavors and all the variations of Unix, Linux and similar programs Master the user interfaces of multiple imaging systems Be competent network troubleshooters

Today’s Imaging Service Professional must wear even more hats than their predecessors of 20 or even 10 years ago.

W

F a m i l i a r i t y w i t h v a r i o u s s y s t e m l e v e l communications interfaces such as RS 232/422/485 and CAN Be capable of performing all of the QA/QC testing that the operators conduct

hat do we mean when we say “many hats?”

If your chosen profession is electronic circuit design, you can afford to be skilled in a single discipline (hat), in this case electronics engineering.

Be capable of duplicating the tests performed and obtaining the same results obtained by the Physicist to confirm the system noncompliance issue has been resolved

Field service, more specifically, servicing medical imaging equipment , requires a broader set of skills to deal with the many and varied electronic and mechanical systems and the requirement of maintaining both physical and radiation safety.

Understand DICOM and PACS

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Be a skilled communicator and excellent in customer relations (this is not a technical skill but could be important enough to be near the top of the list)

The preceding list may seem pretty daunting but it is well within the reach of most service engineers. I know this because we have been successfully teaching these topics for more than 32 years.

With courses that range from basic X-Ray fundamentals to high level product specific service, we strive for skills development that not only applies to the system being used in class but transfers to other systems as well. Software reloads, hard disk cloning, navigating Linux commands and setting up the network configurations on one system are not much different from doing the same on any other system.

RSTI has been working diligently to add yet another hat for you. As a result, we are now able to announce our new training opportunities in the MRI Service sector.

We have entered into an agreement with Alltech Medical Systems America, an MRI manufacturer located right here in Solon.

When it comes to our commitment to your success we have developed some potent solutions.

RSTI education gives you the tools you need to be able to diagnose system failures, make repairs and perform PMs. RSTI Exchange helps you with service support , parts and the tools and consumables required to maintain your systems to manufacturers’ specifications.

Please Excuse Our Dust As you may know we have been under construction and reconfiguring our facility for about a year now.

The new construction has added a new testing and repair center, more testing bays and better workflow for our service support division, RSTI Exchange. The rework of the facility along with our continuing focus on quality control systems will ensure we provide the highest quality replacement parts and technical support services available.

We are also adding new classrooms and upgrading our existing classrooms. With new chairs, desks and power distribution at every desk your training environment will be as comfortable and efficient as possible.

As always our focus is providing service professionals with the tools they need to succeed, no matter what hat they are wearing.

Dale Cover

DALE COVER // PRESIDENT, RSTI

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Training Agreement Between Alltech Medical Systems and RSTI OCTOBER 13, 2017 Alltech Medical Systems America and RSTI have reached a training agreement wherein RSTI will begin offering MRI service training programs at Alltech Medical Systems America’s headquarters in Solon, Ohio.

The goal is to offer customers a more complete spectrum of service solutions by adding MRI training courses. Both parties cited a desire to expand their offerings and leverage their core competencies. RSTI has been offering the finest diagnostic imaging training for over 32 years and brings a proven teaching method to this opportunity. Alltech has been engineering and manufacturing superconducting 1.5T MRI systems for 12-years with solid experience in R&D, application and service. Alltech will provide its technical expertise on the MRI systems to assist with the development of the MRI training programs from RSTI. “As the number of MRI installations grows worldwide, it is important that quality service training is provided to the customers, so that they have improved possibilities of ensuring optimum performance of their MRI systems and lower the costs over the lifetime of the MRI scanners”, said Alltech Medical System America, Inc.’s President James Meng, PhD. “Our commitment to MRI innovation has generated lots of market demand for our MRI products globally, which in turn requires efficient and productive service activities, such as troubleshooting, either onsite or remote, spare parts management, 24/7 online technical support, and preventative maintenance.” The collaborative agreement also provides technical training on generic platforms of MRI systems commonly used at customers’ sites. Because many of the installed MRI systems are aged, the customers can gain the necessary knowledge required to improve uptime by taking care of those old MRI systems themselves. Meng states, “high quality course offerings and RSTI’s reputation in the service training market complement our vision for quality product and customer satisfaction on service.”

“RSTI has often worked with other companies to bring high quality, high technology training courses to our students. One of our main goals for this, other than the obvious opportunity to use equipment we don’t have in our facility, is to work with companies like Alltech Medical Systems America, Inc. that can help the student beyond the classroom with fully functional MRI systems, parts and on-going support. We are pleased to work with Alltech and we are certain our students will benefit from their knowledge, position and reputation in the MRI space.

Programs like this will make it possible for our students to be very successful in servicing MRI and to reduce their overall operating costs,” Dale Cover, President, RSTI.

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NEW! RSTI OFFERS MRI PRINCIPLES TRAINING AS PART OF RSTI’S NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH ALLTECH MEDICAL SYSTEM

BY TODD BOYLAND // VP TRAINING, RSTI We are excited to announce RSTI’s partnership with AllTech Medical System (http://www.alltechms.com) to expand RSTI’s technical training offerings into MRI, with the following courses: MRI Phase I - Principles of Servicing MRI (1 week) MRI Phase II - Advanced MRI Service (1 week)

RSTI continues our mission to develop training products that meet our customers’ needs.

The approach for these courses is similar to our time-tested “X-Ray Certificate Series” training course offerings. Engineers will be taught Principles of MRI service from a non-vendor specific approach. Handson labs will be performed on an AllTech 1.5T wide bore MRI system.

MRI Phase I - Principles Of Servicing MRI (1 Week) This is a skills development course designed to provide an introduction to MRI service for engineers with no MRI experience. The course will equip engineers with the theory, physics, and safety principles required for servicing MRI systems. This course will also teach engineers MRI system operation, identification of major system components, PM basics, and basic troubleshooting of MRI systems.

MRI Phase II – Advanced MRI Service (1 week) This is a skills development course designed to build on fundamentals acquired during the MRI Principles service training course. The course will teach service engineers the concepts of MRI system calibration, performance monitoring and verification, and diagnostics. This course will also teach engineers

MRI image artifact recognition, analysis, and corrective action. We will cover system software management methods, including cloning, ghosting, backup, and restore. Courses are scheduled for the following dates: MRI Phase I - Principles of Servicing MRI (1 week): 1/29/18 – 2/2/18

4/30/18 – 5/4/18

MRI Phase II – Advanced MRI Service (1 week): 2/5/18 – 2/9/18

5/7/18 – 5/11/18

Please contact Anna Morrison (registration@rsti-training.com) for more details including schedule, pricing, and a detailed course outline.

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DAVE’S RAVE BE MINDFUL OF WHAT LIES JUST BENEATH THE MANY “HATS” YOU WEAR

BY DAVE DOMANSKI // INSTRUCTOR, RSTI Field Service Engineers perform many tasks and are often multi-talented with good working knowledge of analog and digital electronics, mechanical systems, pneumatics, hydraulics and even computers and networking. They, in fact, wear many hats in the course of carrying out their daily duties.

What is often overlooked are the most important tools that lie just below those hats – their ears.

Sure, our ears are extremely valuable when it comes to troubleshooting problems with a variety of systems.

Knowing what a system sounds like when it is in good working condition can be an invaluable tool that most of us, engineer or not, use every day when we get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. The phrase “that doesn’t sound right” is familiar to us all. That’s not the type of listening that I’m referring to.

Many times, a service call has little to do with fixing a piece of equipment and everything to do with fixing the customer. This is where good listening skills are very important. Too often in conversation we are not giving the speaker our full attention. We’re too busy formulating our response to have really heard what the customer is saying.

When I was in the field full time I would occasionally get called to sites to “fix” situations that had been created by other engineers, and resulted in unresolved issues and pissed off customers. I found that the best approach was not to take a defensive posture but a positive one. “Hello, I’m David with imaging service and I’m here to help resolve any issues that you are experiencing with modality X. What can I help you with today?” This tends to work better than saying something like “I hear you’ve been having a lot of operator error issues!” That approach will get you

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nowhere. The customer feels attacked and you look like a huge jerk.

I recently had a service call where a surgeon was VERY cross about a C-arm giving him noisy images when fluoroing large patients. I arrived to find no surgeon, but one very upset technologist that had received the brunt of the surgeon’s ire.

Be polite, give them an opening and then just LISTEN with full attention. If you REALLY listen you will likely hit on that important tidbit of information that other engineers missed. When they have finished speaking, move on to the most important part of the conversation. REPEAT back to the speaker what they just told you! “Let me see if I’ve heard you correctly, what you are saying is that you are having problems penetrating larger patients because your C-arm doesn’t have high level fluoro?” You will be amazed at how happy they will feel to have finally been heard!

In the above example, it was a simple user interface issue. The C-arm at this location had been set to default to digital spot instead of HLF, so they assumed that it didn’t have that function. The technologist had never been told how to access high level fluoro if the system didn’t automatically default to that mode. Two touchscreen keys later and the issue was solved. The tech was elated and the surgeon had no more problems.

– Dave

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ENGINEERED FOR LIFE 10 // FOCALSPOT // ISSUE1.17 ISSUE2.17

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RSTI EXCHANGE HAS HOLOGIC COVERED MAKE US YOUR SINGLE SOURCE FOR HOLOGIC DIMENSIONS PARTS, SUPPORT AND SERVICE

BY TERRY SPETH // VP SALES, RSTI EXCHANGE The Hologic Dimensions is the latest and greatest mammography system Hologic has to offer. With tomosynthesis capabilities, it’s a completely different platform than the Selenia. Different boards, different covers, different look! What does that mean to inhouse service engineers, and ISOs? Totally new detectors that are very hard to find on the secondary market The entire gantry is unique and 95% of the components are different internally. Unfortunately, these parts are rare on the secondary market.

Service training won’t be the same as the Selenia.

You will need to be trained!

On the bright side – RSTI already provides all of the above at great prices!

We have been working very hard to find detectors to stock, and systems to harvest. We have stripped down several units already and plan to keep growing our inventory.

We are also developing parts repair processes so we can maintain stock on critical parts. Keep us in mind for everything associated with the Hologic Dimensions.

RSTI is already providing service training on the Dimensions system.

Take a look at our latest course schedule, online and in the attached pullout, to see when the next Hologic class is offered.

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MOBILEDART TRAINING SEE THE COURSE INDEX FOR TRAINING DATES

BY JOE GEARY // INSTRUCTOR, RSTI The staff at RSTI currently provides the diagnostic imaging industry with the highest-quality service training in the world. Thriving in this industry for more than 30 years is not accomplished by standing still.

The team at RSTI is continually striving to provide the training our customers require. We are always adding new classes to our training schedule to ensure our students have all the tools they will need to succeed in their careers.

This course is designed to provide the service professional with the skills necessary to fully service and maintain this X-ray system. Calibrations, preventive maintenance, and troubleshooting are included. We have developed functional block diagrams to aid in circuit comprehension and fault isolation. We look forward to seeing you in class. The course dates are on our schedule.

The latest addition to our training schedule, the Shimadzu MobileDaRt, is being added to the MobileArt training course.

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06/03/15 14:29

THE “POWER” HAT A HAT CALLED UPS

BY MIKE PETELIN // INSTRUCTOR, RSTI With many of the systems we work on going the way of the computer we are seeing the increased use of UPS’s or Uninterruptable Power Supplies.

The primary role of a UPS is to supply adequate power for a period of time for the PC to shut down properly. With the use of UPS’s we encounter some new challenges, especially with UNIX based computers.

As you may already know, computers do not like to be shut down “hard” or powered off without going through the proper shutdown procedure, especially UNIX based computers. When these computers are shut down incorrectly there is the possibility of having files corrupted on the PC, usually requiring a service call.

Most UPS’s have a test button to check its functions.

Often this will put the PC into a shutdown procedure, which will tell you if the corresponding software on the PC is working properly. This button will also do a basic battery check letting you know the status of the battery.

To avoid these potential issues, we need to take notice of the UPS system that is included with the medical equipment. The UPS is often overlooked when doing preventative maintenance. Usually the batteries are the primary problem, as batteries age and hold less of a charge over time.

If the PC does not go into a shutdown procedure we will need to investigate whether there is a cable disconnected between the PC and the UPS, or if the UPS software package on the PC is not installed and/ or not configured properly. If the battery’s health is reduced, we will need to replace the UPS, or for the budget minded, the batteries can usually be purchased and replaced in the UPS on their own.

TESTIMONIAL

Another possible issue is loading of the UPS, if too much power is being consumed from the batteries while there is a power outage, the batteries may not operate at their rated output voltage for an adequate time for the PC to shut down properly.

RSTI training helped prepare me for my new role. With RSTI parts and tech support, the first year has been a great success. I am so grateful for everyone at RSTI. Thanks!

From Eric O., RSTI Alumnus

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PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID AKRON, OH PERMIT #286 RADIOLOGICAL SERVICE TRAINING INSTITUTE 30745 SOLON ROAD SOLON, OHIO 44139 WWW.RSTI-TRAINING.COM A DDR ES S SERV I C E R EQU ESTED

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