ScanMed's Repair Validation Process

When I’m talking to clients and new repair prospects they inevitably ask me:

“Hey Jim, how do you guys know you fixed my problem?”

Well, that is a very good question and one that deserves a straightforward and honest answer. I tell them it starts with you, the client. For the repair process to work right we need as much information about the failure you are experiencing as we can get. If you have images that demonstrate the type of problem you are having, as well as the specific protocols that were running at the time that is tremendously helpful. Especially when we are trying to fix an “intermittent issue”--one that maybe happens every fourth or fifth scan or can go weeks before recurring again. These problems can be the most difficult to ultimately resolve and for that reason require that we get as much information from the client as possible.

Validation Begins With A Thorough Coil Assessment

Over the years we have modified our Coil Assessment Form to do exactly that, we ask our clients to fill that form out to the best of their ability so that our technician has that information at his or her fingertips when they start to repair the coil. The whole nature of our repair process at ScanMed is to try to correlate our findings to the reported failure. We actively maintain a database of all the coils that we have worked on over the years, we can see the types of failures that were reported and examine the details of our previous repairs that have been successful. This allows us to have a better insight into what might be going wrong with the client’s specific coil.

Our Competitive Validation Process

Once the problem has been isolated we run the coil through our extensive test fixturing to ensure that the coil is operating at the original OEM specifications. We send our complete findings and repair resolution with each repair that we make. When the situation allows, we will system test the coil on one of our two in house scanners or we will take it to one of the additional six scanners from different OEM’s that we have access to locally. We believe that one of our competitive advantages at ScanMed is we have onsite and local scanners that allow us to test the coil in a system environment. Another is that we have access to several highly trained MRI coil design engineers and physicists to assist in diagnostics when needed. Further, on complex intermittent problems of coils that run on one of the two system platforms that we have onsite, we have even utilized an in house MRI Technician scanning a volunteer using the same identical protocol that failed previously at the client site and run the scan to demonstrate the coil is now functional. We do all these things to try to help our clients resolve their issue with their coil and get it back to working order again.

The ScanMed Difference

We sincerely believe this process is what makes ScanMed repair uniquely qualified to handle your next coil repair. I will tell you we are not perfect, but you won’t find a company that will go to the extent that we will to ultimately resolve your problem! That in essence is how we validate our repairs. Give us a call or email us and we are happy to provide you with a full no obligation price quote for your specific coil needs.