QA for fMRI, Part 2: User QA

Motivation

The majority of "scanner issues" are created by routine operation, most likely through error or omission. In a busy center with harried scientists who are invariably running late there is a tendency to rush procedures and cut corners. This is where a simple QA routine - something that can be run quickly by anyone - can pay huge dividends, perhaps allowing rapid diagnosis of a problem and permitting a scan to proceed after just a few minutes' extra effort.

A few examples to get you thinking about the sorts of common problems that might be caught by a simple test of the scanner's configuration - what I call User QA. Did the scanner boot properly, or have you introduced an error by doing something before the boot process completed? You've plugged in a head coil but have you done it properly? And what about the magnetic particles that get tracked into the bore, might they have become lodged in a critical location, such as at the back of the head coil or inside one of the coil sockets? Most, if not all, of these issues should be caught with a quick test that any trained operator should be able to interpret.

User QA is, therefore, one component of a checklist that can be employed to eliminate (or permit rapid diagnosis of) some of the mistakes caused by rushing, inexperience or carelessness. At my center the User QA should be run when the scanner is first started up, prior to shut down, and whenever there is a reason to suspect the scanner might not perform as intended. It may also be used proactively by a user who wishes to demonstrate to the next user (or the facility manager!) that the scanner was left in a usable state.