Working with a Super Magnet MRI
Left: Aslaam Alladina, MRI Supervisor, Burnaby Hospital
Note to readers: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
MRI Supervisor Aslaam Alladina is no stranger to Burnaby Hospital. While he just started his new role as MRI Supervisor, he actually first started his career as a night shift x-ray technician about a decade ago. He was fresh out of school at the time, pulling in experience and opportunities, which soon found him in MRI at Surrey Memorial for approximately nine years before coming back to Burnaby Hospital.
A day at MRI usually entails running initial diagnostics of the super magnet powering the machine, and then scanning patients every half hour to hour. There’s no typical type of patient who needs an MRI, and Aslaam comments, “It varies from people like athletes who have a hurt knee or ankle to people who are very sick – in-patients or ICU patients who come down here because they’ve had a stroke or are in critical need. The type of patients you have in MRI are very, very wide.”
Having worked in MRI for almost 10 years, Aslaam finds the balance of technology and patient care very appealing. “They both go hand-in-hand. Because of that, you get a nice balance of what your day is. You do a lot of medical contact with patients. And on the other hand, you have this deep technical side with lots of computers and high-tech physics. It’s never a boring day.”
“Almost every day, there’s a patient success story”, he continues. “There are people who come in with chronic illnesses, and they’ve gone through batteries and batteries of tests, and everything’s turned out negative. They come to an MRI and find out, Oh! This is what it is and it’s easily fixable.”
In addressing the work environment, Aslaam says, “I’ve worked at quite a few different hospitals. It’s more of a service to the community here. That’s the feeling that you have. Here, it’s reaching out to the community rather than other people coming towards you. Everyone knows your name here; it’s like Cheers.”
