The machines are faster, and have a higher resolution than they did 20 years ago when I went through my “intensive diagnostic investigation.” But as you noted having a cold, they are still set up for healthy people. The narrow bench, lying completely flat and holding one’s breath are still very difficult for the sick and very old people they are often scanning.

You seem to have had a unit with a decent sized bench… last scan I had ( a PET scan ) had me lie on a tray that was no more than 12 inches wide. ( For those that don’t kow me, I’m a LOT wider than 12″! ) Even though I was feeling fine at the time, trying to keep all my bulk perched on this little balance beam and immobile was not exactly a cake walk.

On another note, most of the delays in getting scans is not from lack of equipment, or even really technicians to run them. THe scans are quick, as you noted, and it really isnt that complicated to operate the machines these days. What the real hold up seems to be is a lack of radioligists to interpret the scans. Back in the days of fuzzy x-rays that made sense… nowadays I just don’t know if we really need someone with 6+ years of university education to interpret most of the scans that are crystal clear images that look like they came out of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Maybe we would be better off to train ALL doctors to interpret basic scans anand only call in specialists when there is something funky that the regular guys can’t figure out. I mean we train all our doctors to do minor surgery, which most of them will never do, and that they will be horrible at anyway without continous practice. Yet we don’t train them to interpret diagnostic tests which are almost de-riguer fro anything more complex than a sore throat.