Volume 2, No. 13. July 12, 2002
Kelp
calm
Enduring an MRI—magnetic resonance imaging—can be a claustrophobic
experience for patients. From 30 to 60 minutes those requiring a head, neck
or shoulder scan are stuck inside a bore with only a few inches of room around
the head and a giant magnet hovering close to the face. This is precisely the
moment when patients visiting the two Comprehensive Imaging centers in Santa
Cruz, California, are also visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California,
thanks to the aquarium’s web cams and a high-tech linkup with the MRI centers.
Before entering
the MRI chamber, patients are fitted with padded virtual reality goggles hooked
to a computer which downloads the five streaming web cams from the aquarium.
Patients can choose to watch the otter or penguins exhibits, the tuna and sharks
gliding through a million-gallon tank, the aquarium’s famous kelp forest
or Monterey Bay itself. The purpose is to relax patients during a stressful
procedure, a need MRI technicians have long looked for.
“It was one
of those synchronistic moments,” Jeffrey Hammett, marketing representative
for Los Gatos Comprehensive Imaging, said of the company choosing Monterey Bay
Aquarium’s web cams as the medium for alleviating stress. “Our manager
and a technologist were talking about how stressed out they were at a particular
moment, and the manager went onto (the aquarium’s) web site and was relaxed
watching the web cams. She shared that experience with the technologist, and
they said, ‘Would that be relaxing for our patients who are anxious or
claustrophobic?’”
The center tested
the idea for two months, offering it to about 60 patients. In the test phase,
the patients did not get a choice of cams. “We had an overwhelming positive
response,” Hammett said: in fact, 100 percent of the patients said in surveys
the web casts helped alleviate stress. In rolling out the program this month
at the Los Gatos center and as part of the grand opening of the company’s
new Santa Cruz center, Comprehensive Imaging is allowing patients a choice of
streaming cams and also providing music through earphones (the music is independent
of the aquarium’s web cams). If the program continues successfully for
a trial period, Comprehensive Imaging will offer it at its San Francisco, Fremont,
Vallejo and three Sacramento centers, Hammett said.
“There are
no real capacity issues with our streaming cams,” said Ken Peterson, the
aquarium’s public relations manager. “We have unlimited capacity for
simultaneous viewing, so we could put this in other MRI centers.” However,
it was an application the aquarium’s marketing department never considered
when it began offering the five live scenes through its web site. “We didn’t
seek it out,” Peterson said. “I was surprised it was possible, but
our web team embraced it right away.”
So, it seems, have people enduring one of medical science’s most psychologically stressful procedures. “Just laying there and watching beds of kelp slowly swaying back and forth and fish slowly swimming in and out of view,” Hammett said, “helped calm them down."
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