In the past few decades the practise of radiology has been transformed almost beyond recognition. we are now moving to a position where diagnosis is made by a non-invasive imaging procedure and treatment is ba minimally invasive surgery.
Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
Electrical Engineer
* 28 August 1919, Sutton-on-Trent Nottinghamshire, England
† 12. August 2004, Kingston upon Thames, London, England
Hounsfield built a prototype of a computer tomograph and tested it first on a preserved human brain, then on a fresh cow brain from a butcher shop, and later on himself. On 1 October 1971, CT scanning was introduced into medical practice with a successful scan on a cerebral cyst patient at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan McLeod Cormack.
Paul Lauterbur
Chemist
* May 6, 1929, Sidney, Ohio, USA
† March 27, 2007, Urbana, Illinois, USA
Paul Lauterbur developed a way to generate the first MRI images, in 2D and 3D, using gradients. In 1973, Lauterbur published the first nuclear magnetic resonance image. The first cross-sectional image of a living mouse was published in January 1974. Reflecting the fundamental importance and applicability of MRI in medicine, Paul Lauterbur was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Peter Mansfield
Physicist
* 9 October 1933, Lambeth, London, England
Mansfield showed how the radio signals from MRI can be mathematically analysed, that makes interpretation of the signals into a useful image a possibility. He is also discovered how fast imaging could be possible by developing the MRI protocol called echo-planar imaging. Echo-planar imaging allows T2 weighted images to be collected many times faster than previously possible. 2003 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Julio Palmaz
Radiologist
* 1945, La Plata (Province of Buenos Aires), Argentina
Palmaz is an interventionalradiologist, who introduced the balloon-expandable stent in 1985.
Willi A. Kalender
Medical Physicist
* August 1, 1949, Bergheim, Germany
Development and introduction of helical scan CT in 1989. He has also worked in radiation protection and the development of quantitative diagnostic procedures, e.g. for assessment of osteoporosis, lung and cardiac diseases.
Juan Carlos Parodi
Surgeon
* 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Parodi, a vascular surgeon, designed the aortic endovascular prosthesis in 1991.
