The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

-Voltaire

About StackRay

During the spring of 1994 I was searching for a way to combine my interest in computer assisted education with my career as a radiologic technologist to solve some significant problem which I could use as the basis of one of the two major projects required to earn a M.Ed. The result is StackRay Image Lab 1.0, a Hypercard based x-ray machine simulator for the Macintosh and Power Mac. The program was originally called StackRay [a combination of x-ray and the fact that it was a Hypercard stack] but as I began working on other projects I decided to use StackRay as a trademark to identify all of my software.

The second major project to come to fruition is the Medical Radiography Home Page, a continually growing set of interconnected web pages designed to be a resource for radiologic science professionals, students, and educators using the internet for research. There is a growing amount of original content at this site but the real strength of the Medical Radiography Home Page is the links to other radiology and education resources from around the world gathered in the course of my own studies.

Radiology Resources

Education Resources

StackRay Image Lab 1.0 is an interactive teaching program which turns a personal computer into a virtual x-ray machine. allowing students to practice a variety of imaging skills learned in the classroom on simulated patients at their own pace. Using the StackRay Image Lab software, students can observe the relationship between KVP, MA, exposure time, distance, grids, film/screen combination, anatomy and part thickness.

 StackRay Image Lab 1.0 is also an ideal tool for the student technologist who needs more practice to feel comfortable operating radiographic equipment. The StackRay Image Lab software provides students positive reinforcement when skills are performed correctly and offers helpful suggestions when mistakes are made. Every successful exposure results in a radiograph being displayed along with technical information on the exposure including the actual KVP, the effective KVP, the MAS, the percentage of energy converted to heat, the number of heat units generated, the percentage of energy converted to x-rays, and the approximate ESE.

 The StackRay Image Lab software helps fill the need for practical tools which can be used in many different ways in both the clinical and didactic portions of Medical Radiography programs. StackRay Image Lab 1.0 is currently available for the Macintosh and Power Mac as well as for any other computer capable of running either the Mac OS or the Macintosh Application Environment. 

Complete product information including screen shots is available from our home page at :
 

http://web.wn.net/~usr/ricter/web/stackRay.html (usually faster)
 

Last updated Feb. 24, 2000.