The Inspiring Journey of Joseph Ferreri from X-Ray Tech to Radiology Practitioner Assistant

Episode Overview

Episode Topic: In this episode of The Skeleton Crew, host Jennifer Callahan sits down with Joseph Ferreri, a seasoned Radiology Practitioner Assistant (RPA) from New York Imaging Specialists. Joseph shares his remarkable journey from starting as an X-ray technician to becoming an RPA, a role that has evolved significantly over his 25-year career. Listeners will gain insight into the world of interventional radiology, the shift from hospital-based care to outpatient centers, and the cutting-edge technologies currently shaping the field. This conversation highlights the dedication and passion required to excel in radiology and the impact of continuous learning and adaptation in a rapidly changing medical landscape.

Lessons You’ll Learn:This episode offers valuable lessons for current and aspiring radiology professionals. Joseph’s journey underscores the importance of pursuing advanced certifications and degrees to expand career opportunities. Listeners will learn about the vital role of mentorship and the significance of being adaptable to new technologies and practices. Joseph also shares his experiences in navigating challenges within the healthcare system, such as gaining acceptance for the Radiology Practitioner Assistant role and integrating it into larger healthcare organizations. His advice to “do what you love and love what you do” serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of passion and dedication in achieving long-term career success.

About Our Guests: Joseph Ferreri is a highly experienced Radiology Practitioner Assistant with a career spanning over two decades. Starting his career in X-ray technology in the mid-90s, Joseph’s passion for interventional radiology led him to pursue advanced certifications and ultimately become a Radiology Practitioner Assistant. He has worked extensively in hospital settings and now plays a pivotal role at New York Imaging Specialists, where he helps pioneer interventional radiology procedures in an outpatient setting. Joseph is known for his dedication to patient care, his commitment to professional growth, and his role in advancing the field of radiology through mentorship and innovation.

Topics Covered:In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics that will interest anyone in the field of radiology or healthcare. Joseph discusses the evolution of his career, from his early days in X-ray technology to his current role as an RPA. We delve into the differences between working in hospital settings versus outpatient centers and explore the latest advancements in radiology technology, including the use of AI and 3D imaging techniques. Joseph also talks about the importance of mentorship, the challenges of integrating new roles within established healthcare systems, and the future of radiology in both hospital and outpatient environments. This episode is packed with insights and practical advice for radiology professionals at any stage of their careers

Our Guest: Joseph Ferreri Radiology Practitioner Assistant specializing at New York Imaging Specialists.

Episode Transcript

Jennifer Callahan: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Skeleton Crew. I’m your host Jen Callihan. And tonight I have with me Joe Ferrari. He’s joining me from Long Island New York.  he is a board certified radiology practitioner assistant.  and he’s working with this current company called New York Imaging Specialists. Tonight we’re going to talk about, you know, his role from starting into x-ray all the way through to him being an RA and his transition, you know, working in hospitals and now currently working with the imaging specialist, which is actually an outpatient center. So, Joe, thanks for being with me tonight.

Joseph Ferreri: Oh. You’re welcome. Thank you for having me, Jen.

 Jennifer Callahan: Oh, my pleasure. So we’re going to have a great conversation. But first, let’s learn a little bit about you. , we talk a little bit before we started recording, but let’s share with our audience, you know, where you started and where you are now and how you got there.

Joseph Ferreri: So I went to X-ray school back in 95, 96, , graduated , in actually 97, I graduated, started working at a local hospital, , doing, you know, general X-ray and, , had a passion for er from the time I was a student, , got the opportunity as a student to to get hands on experience and scrub in with some of the interventional doctors in my training program. Absolutely loved it. , was fortunate when I got out of school. I did actually for about two and a half years and, , a position I was actually approached by, , one of our radiologists and asked me if I had any interest in IRR. And I said, yeah, that’s where I want to end up. And, you know, I just I love everything about it. And so they, , they started bringing me in there, , kind of per diem covering, you know, shifts and vacations and stuff like that. , for about a year and a half. And then they moved me in there full time. So I’ve been in er now for 25 years. , a lot of changes along the way. , once I got into er, I decided I wanted to go back to school and obtain my bachelor’s degree. So I went to Saint Joseph’s College here in Patchogue, Long Island. , obtained my bachelor’s degree. And when I got done with that, just decided that I wanted to take my vascular interventional exam. So I started preparing for that. Took me about two years to do all the cases, you know, with all the requirements and stuff, just to sit for the exam.

Joseph Ferreri: , I took my VI exam and got certified. I, you know, passed the exam, then got done after about a year, still kept feeling like there was something more out there. I started looking into, , possibly going to PA school at the time, you know, being married, having small children, a mortgage, , just felt that there would be no way that I could do it. And a colleague of mine, , actually said, hey, you know, have you heard about the RA program? , to the Asst. And, you know, I said, no, you know, I don’t really know much about it. So kind of looked into it and was intrigued by it. Reached out to the director from at the time it was University of Medicine and Dentistry, which then became Rutgers. I reached out to the program director there. We had some conversations. I decided to, you know, to go down that road. But I decided that I was going to get everybody to buy in. So I went to my administrators. I obviously I spoke to my interventional radiologist that I work with. I had asked him, you know, how do you feel about this? Would you mentor me? He was on board. Thought it was great. , you know, as an er, tech, we were first assist, so I was scrubbed in on every case, you know, , for all the years that I was in there. So he thought it was great.

Joseph Ferreri: We went to administration, I went to, you know, the vice president of nursing and, , and resources. And everybody was supportive. And they said, you know, great. , you know, there’s no promise of a job, but, you know, we’ll support the role. So I got the hospital to sign a collaborative affiliation agreement with Rutgers, and I did all my clinical internship at the local hospital. , finished up the program, and once I got done, you know, we approached admin and said, you know, is there any possibility they looked through everything? Took them about a year. A lot of board meetings. , you know, some pushback from different departments. , on the medical staff. , the end result is, they were all on board. , so after about a year, they approved the position. They created a position. , at that time I had become supervisor of interventional radiology. So I was kind of running everything. And we were in the middle of, , putting in a brand new angio suite. So I didn’t really want to give that up because I was so involved from day one with it. , and I had asked, you know, can I stay on as the supervisor and kind of a hybrid role, get us through the construction, which I did. Once we got done, my role just became strictly, you know, the RA role, , started doing, you know, procedures, working with our Interventionalists. , we had brought on two other interventionalists at the time, so we were rapidly expanding, , department, , again at the hospital for 25 years.

Joseph Ferreri: And , one day I was just sitting at my desk and , kind of just thinking about, you know, where I am after 25 years. And, , a friend of mine reached out to me that his work was working for New York , New York imaging and, you know, asked me if I would be interested. They had started up an interventional program and asked me if I would be interested in getting together and hearing about their program, so, you know, kind of thought about it and said, yeah, you know what? I’m going to I’m going to take a look. So I went out. I met the staff, the team, the interventional radiologist that I work with now. Doctor Drabkin, , , met everybody. I really was very impressed. And, you know, I felt like at the, at the hospital, I kind of did every role, , along the way from staff tech to, , er, tech to supervisor of interventional radiology. I did all the quality control years ago with the, you know, had to go to all of our state inspections. , you know, to the RA, which, you know, was my, my ultimate, , goal. So, , I decided to, , to, to take this opportunity and get involved with something from the ground up and be a big part of it. And, you know, I have to be honest and say, I haven’t looked back once. , it’s been a great experience. , loving. Loving every day. Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: I mean, so many questions to ask you just going through, like, the course of your life. I mean, where to start, really? But I mean, honestly, obviously you feel so great about where you currently are and like you said, like you’ve never looked back because sometimes the journey like, really is the whole story and makes like for the best ending, you know, that you to possibly have just started as an x ray tech and then possibly just moved right into like trying to go back to school for an RA. , or not trying, but going back to school to become an RA. You know, your your story would be different, you know? But you did it. You did the work and not even say you have to do the work, or that you have to go through the whole journey that you did, but it fully prepares you, and you know what I mean? Like, you know every aspect of what you’re doing at this point. You know, you start at an x ray, you went back, you did your VI boards, you know, you worked in it. You love it so much you decided that you wanted to transition into the RA, but you already were a supervisor, so you were already so hands on in the department. So I mean, it, , it makes sense why you would never look back and possibly even change anything in what your story is, you know?

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah, yeah, it was, , you know, I have I have three children. , and I can remember, you know, during the RA, you know, program doing my work, my kids were young and and they would pass to daddy what? You know, I put them get ready to put them to bed at night. And what are you doing? Why do you have your books out? Why do you. You know, why are you doing this? Because this is what I want to do. It’s something that I really enjoy, you know? , and, , you know, there was a lot of, , I want to say skepticism because of the RA role. And for so many years, you know, the first few years when I started, , I know we talked about this on another podcast, , you know, how it was, you know, fly under the radar. , my last, , , what would you say, , that my last account. Like what I feel like I really wanted to accomplish was when I was leaving the hospital, , setting, , again, it wasn’t for, you know, anything other than a new opportunity. , but my last meetings that I had, I was really pushing. We were being taken over by a large, , you know, hospital organization. And I really wanted the RA role, , and implanted into that organization. And there was some resistance because I was the only one. And they would come back and say, well, you know, you’re the only RA in the entire system of 75,000 employees. So but that doesn’t you know, that’s not a bad thing. I don’t look at that as a bad thing, as being the only one. , and the end. , before I, I decided to make the transition, , they called me in and they said, you know, , you should be very proud because, , through a lot of, , background meetings, , management and administrative meetings, , the RA role is instilled in our system and any of, , the, you know, , the hospitals are can hire an RA. So I was very proud, , to be a part of that.

 Jennifer Callahan: Yeah, sure. I mean, you laid the groundwork there for future RA. Ras who could get into that health system? That does bring me back to a question. I was thinking, you know, when you did, you know, complete your, your Ras, , degree, , the, the doctors that you were working with, you know, did you feel any, like, pushback from them with you coming in and doing procedures of.

Joseph Ferreri: No.

 Jennifer Callahan: Not really be doing no.

Joseph Ferreri: Honestly. , you know, they, they were so supportive, , you know, the skills that they helped me build, , it made me what I am today. , I was fortunate to be to be part of that. And, you know, we had, , we they the hospital was starting a residency program, so we went from a radiology residency program to an ER program. , I was actively involved with residents every single day. They worked with me, they rotated with me. We did ports, we did Paris, we did Torres. , and, , the experience that I got working with them, as well as the feedback And now that they’re out there, graduated, , we had I think about a year ago was the first er, class that graduated, , residency class that graduated, , they called me up, invited me to the graduation, , you know, which was just made me feel good that I was a part of their growing, you know, , and, and, you know, I feel it feels good to have their support now that they’re out there working and they’re saying, hey, you know what? , I worked with NRA and or I’d get a phone call, you know, from one that graduated and she would say, hey, Joe, you know, , I’m working over here, and, and I, I met a girl, and she’s an RA, and, you know, I told her so much about you and and, you know, it just feels good to be involved in their training, you know, on the skills that I received and and passing it on and teaching them little things to, you know, help them out.

 Jennifer Callahan: Sure. I mean, mentorship is huge, you know, at any point or stage in life, you know, and it’s great that you received it when you were, you know, going through your RA program and you were able to give it to, you know, other students who came after you, even though they they weren’t in the same type of program. They were in a residency, you know, but that’s great that you were able to pass along the knowledge that you have. So that’s it’s awesome. It’s like full circle, you know. Yeah. , so let’s talk about then, you know, what differences do you do. You kind of see, I mean, I think of looking at like working in interventional radiology at a hospital and then working in interventional radiology at an outpatient facility is a completely different like the types of procedures I would asse might have to differ a little bit just because of possibly like severity, like you’re not doing right. Not to say you. I’m not sure our Ra’s, , part of like Embolizations. Would they be part of that in a hospital setting?

Joseph Ferreri: I mean, you could be. You could be as a first assist, you know, working with the doctor. Okay.

 Jennifer Callahan: , but obviously you’re not doing something like that at an outpatient, correct?

Joseph Ferreri: Correct. But we do a lot of embolizations. , you know, so, you know, go back to the field of, of, er when I started, we were doing most of our work was all vascular work. You know, the vascular surgeons were referring all of their patients to us. We were doing all of the diagnostic angiograms runoffs, , stenting. , we would do we would doing cryo plasty. , what.

 Jennifer Callahan: Is what’s cryo plasty?

Joseph Ferreri: So cryo plasty is, , was popular a few years back, but basically using a balloon and, , CO2 and basically putting putting your balloon like you would to do a regular plasty across a lesion and then you would actually hook it up to this setup where you would use, , , CO2 and freeze. And when the balloon expanded, it would freeze the plaque and push the plaque into the wall of the arteries. Oh, so, you know, that was that was being used for a while. And, you know, we were we were the front line for all of the cold legs that were, you know, in the emergency room. So, you know, our call was really, you know, a lot of thrombolysis cases using, using like angio, jet and, you know, different types of, , thrombolytics. , but there was a shift in, in the workflow. , probably back in around 2005, 2006, a lot of the vascular practices started hiring interventional, , interventional trained vascular surgeons. So they started pulling a lot of those cases back and doing them their own on their own. So, you know, we evolved. Kyphoplasty was becoming more mainstream. , it was a lot, you know, reimbursement was there from the insurance companies.

Joseph Ferreri: So we started doing a lot of kyphoplasty. We worked with several of the big vendors and, , promoting it and going out to the offices and, and, you know, bringing new influx of patients. , and then from there, , the field of, of er kind of moved into interventional oncology, where we started doing a lot of, , you know, y 90, , embolization, bland embolization tastes, , diff all different kinds of, , embolizations, , with, , with our hematology oncology. And that’s where I met a lot of the doctors that I’m working with today through this organization. This group. , so, yeah, it’s been a big shift, , jp forward to today, , the practice, , you know, we, , we do a lot of, , prostate artery embolization uterine artery embolizations. We do, , male and female, , pelvic congestion and, , gonadal vein embolizations, , as well as all of the other mainstream, you know, pick pics, ports, Paris stories, bone marrow biopsies. , so the field itself has changed a lot over the years. The 25 years, you know, that I’ve been in this field in this area. 

 Jennifer Callahan: , so question about so doing, you know, lots of outpatient centers like all over the place offering, you know, kind of your more like mainstream diagnostic type imaging, MRI, Cat scan, things like that. To be honest, , before, you know, you and I were set up to meet with each other and to talk. I mean, I had never heard of her, being part of an outpatient center.  Do you know of other facilities out there that offer similar type services, or are you guys kind of like a standalone , practice at this point almost, that are unique in offering this.

Joseph Ferreri: There are some other, , outpatient imaging, , facilities that do some, some interventional stuff. A lot of it is, you know, port placements. , I don’t know offhand, you know, area wise, , who else is, is doing it? , not at the level that we’re doing it, you know, New York imaging. , they’ve taken it when I joined a year and a half ago, I believe we had nine imaging facilities, , throughout, , Long Island into New York. , since I’ve joined, I think as of the last couple of weeks, we’re up to 17 imaging facilities. We have Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, , upper, , I think Westchester, , Hudson Valley and, you know, multiple throughout Long Island. , we are the only office as of this moment in time that is doing interventional procedures. , and there’s, you know, future expansion of that, , in the works.

 Jennifer Callahan: Do you think that you might possibly be a part of, like, helping develop that? I mean, you don’t have to answer that. Maybe if you don’t want to, but I’m just thinking, I mean, you know, I think so.

Joseph Ferreri: You’re a.

 Jennifer Callahan: Pioneer. And part of this, I feel like, you know, so someone specifically brought you in, and, you know, I would only think that your expertise would be utilized, you know?

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah, yeah, I hope so. I hope to be a part of it. , you know, once things get, get going a little bit more, , I definitely could see, you know, there’ll be there being a role, , you know, for that. 

 Jennifer Callahan: , so looking at, you know, working at a hospital setting to working where you currently are now. , in terms of like technologies, , you know, then to compare to now, have you seen because you know, you’ve been in the field for quite some time, you know, you entered into at least radiology x-ray in like 95, 96. So I mean, you’ve seen a good span of, you know, in terms of just regular x ray I’m sure. But have you seen since you entered into interventional radiology from like the early 2000 to currently now. Oh, yeah. That you’re working with.

Joseph Ferreri: You know, you go to any of the, , any of the conferences, , sir, , any of the big conferences, you know, the machinery. It’s like any other technology, you know, every every other year, you know, it’s like the machine you’re using is almost outdated. , you know, we use the, , Philips, , our interventional suite is, , it’s a Philips machine with, , cone beam CT. , one of the things that I could right off the top of my head is, you know, I remember starting, , when we got our first updated, you know, state of the art machine when I was working in the hospital, , where you could do cone beam or 3D rotational angiography, which basically would, , give you a 3D image like a Cat scan image with the machine only spinning, I think, 270 degrees. , the computer would fill in, fill in the rest, , the recon time was three minutes. You don’t think three minutes is a lot? But when you’re so patient, when you have a patient on the table and you have a catheter and you’re worrying about an artery spasming and or losing access or anything like that, and you know, you’re trying to have the patient hold still and not move. Three minutes feels like an eternity. Oh, yeah. You know, now we do, you know, prostate artery embolizations. , I can recall doing a first prostate artery embolization several years ago. And you’re talking about four hour procedure. , we’re doing prostate artery embolizations in an hour. , and a lot has to do with the equipment. , you know, we do have a, , a protocol, a CT protocol that when the patients are consulted, they go, they get their CT. , those images can be brought up right on the monitor. But our recon time to do the same 3D rotational spin for cone beam CT, , is under 30s. That’s great. So you think about, you know, like you’re watching the clock and okay, okay, where’s the image? Where’s the image? And, you know, now it’s it’s like, you know, I would just I would imagine it’s going to even get quicker. Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: Three minutes. I mean for those who are listening, who might not work in the field of radiology or anything time specific like that, three minutes is a long time and I can attest to it. Just working in, you know, just using a general calm within the operating room and, you know, something trips and your plug gets pulled out and you’ve got to reboot your machine. And the doctor’s standing there staring at you, and you’re like, I know it takes like two minutes and 30s for this thing to kick back on, and you’re just standing there. So, I mean, I totally understand what you’re saying. Three minutes doesn’t seem long, but it definitely, actually really is.

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah, I can remember going from three minutes down to down to 90s and, you know, you were just like, oh my God, this is great. And like I said, now we’re down to 30s for complete spin and recon. , to actually be able to look at the imaging. 

 Jennifer Callahan: , where are you currently are now. I mean like I is like all over the map and I feel like, you know, I’ve had a lot of different, , guests. Come on. You know, talking about different technologies that are being developed is are you guys using any of that within your suite that you’re, , working in and in New York imaging.

Joseph Ferreri: So we’re not really using, , too much of it. , within the organization, there is some, , some AI stuff out there. I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago when I was talking with our chief of radiology for our organization. And, , conversation came up and we were talking about it and, you know, just some of the stuff out there, obviously, you know, there’s fear, right? Everybody talks about, you know, losing losing your job to computers and whatnot. , and, you know, he was saying, as good as it is, it’s not there yet. , no, no, there’s nothing that there’s nothing, , you know, more complete than, than a set of eyes that are, you know, that are reading the films, , reading the images and everything. , probably within the next, you know, 5 to 10 years, I could see that there’s going to be some, some, you know, much more, much more advancement in that. 

 Jennifer Callahan: I mean, I was discussing this with another guest recently that it’s just I is I feel like really being just developed to help. It’s an additional tool that you have right in your.

Joseph Ferreri: Box.

 Jennifer Callahan: And you can use it if you want to, and you don’t have to. And some are great to be used, you know, in terms of radiologists who are sitting and reading studies that it’s great to use, , save you’re like on the fence about something and you might use it to scan it and it’s confirming what you already believed or might point out something that may.

Joseph Ferreri: Be totally different.

 Jennifer Callahan: Right? , or then there’s also two there’s great things that, you know, kind of, you know, for, you know, again, just going with like the reading thing that, , prioritize things on your list, you know, , so not so much using within air, but, you know, the doctors who radiologists who do work in er, like, I know the department that I work in, you know, if they’re not doing procedures, then they’re sitting down there looking at Cat scans or looking at, you know, other images and doing readings on them. So they’re, you know, there’s different AI tools out there that prioritize in your list of like, you know, you should look at this one first and then, you know, so on and so forth. Right. , different tools though, and I, I don’t know if this would be considered AI, but, , Joe and I were talking about how I work in a hybrid or, , using, you know, for vascular procedures. And I think the technology that I use there, we have Siemens equipment, , and I love that. Like, you know, they can do we can do a run with contrast. And then, you know, you paddle through the image, they pick the one that they want. And then we put it up and Siemens calls it an overlay. Some people call it, I think native or something. I’m not really sure, but it’s basically like a shadow on the screen. And it’s helpful for the doctors. It’s basically like they have a little tiny map there that they can use.

Joseph Ferreri: So they’re all part of, you know, part of like the road mapping software that that came out, , you know, years, years ago where, you know, with the, with the split monitors, , you could now take that image, put it on a native reduce, remove some of the background. Yeah, , some of the bony structures, and then basically, , repeat the same, , , run and get your balloon or your catheter or your , stent to the exact location. Yeah. , and, and so your, your accuracy of, , of dropping a stent or ballooning, you know, , , a stricture is much more … what’s the word I’m looking for? , much more accurate. Right?

 Jennifer Callahan: Right. It saves on dose for patients. , you know, and then patients who, you know, might have, like, kidney issues, like you’re concerned about using contrast, using too much. You don’t have to keep doing runs. You know, you can, you know, look at it and paddle through and pick the picture that you want. So I mean so much, so much stuff. And I’m sure probably at the time when you first entered into er was anything like that even on the map or maybe possibly being used at your facility like that?

Joseph Ferreri: No. When I, when I started, we were doing peripheral runoffs. You were doing table stepping. , we were doing them with, , on film. Plain film. Okay. You know, 14 by 17 cassettes. You loaded them in and there were five, you know, cassettes underneath the patient. And, you know, the machines, , stepped to the next position, took the picture, you know, and just kept going down. Then you’d go to the dark room, you’d process, , the film, , you’d take it out, and now you’re hanging on your, your the view boxes and the rads looking at the legs in five different images from each, you know, each segment, , to now where, you know, you’re, you’re right up on the entire thing is right up on on your monitor. Yeah, I think we have like a 65 inch monitor on our, you know, built into the machine.

 Jennifer Callahan: So speaking of something like that where you’re running individual cassettes, , you know, I’m in the era of I learned about film screens, , in school, it was still part of my X-ray boards and then but, you know, CR was on the scene. Digital was like, doctor , was being talked about but wasn’t really prevalent at the time. Yeah. , but I do remember my first place that I, my first hospital that I worked at, you know, we were doing scoliosis. So a little bit different than a runoff, but you’re still taking separate individual images, and you’d have to take three cassettes and you’d have to load them in, and then the image would process. But the software was there that it stitched it for you all together.

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: It was something like that developed for runoff images.

Joseph Ferreri: It was. Yeah, yeah. , you know, it went from that to, to your, your doctor acquisitions. , where again? Now, you don’t have to load anything. You just had to set the machine up, program it. You would, , step the table over each portion of the, , extremities, , from the pelvis down to the feet, , and then once you had, you know, your two buttons, you want the injector to power injector for your contrast. And then the other button was your table and it would just step, , accordingly.

 Jennifer Callahan: Standing there like.

Joseph Ferreri: This. Yeah. And hope you don’t come off the button. And I’m sure anybody who’s been in ER knows it’s not a good thing. When the doc looks over at you and you, you came off the, , the button and , you stopped injecting or you stopped x-raying too early. Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: Yeah. You’re like, oh, my God, I’m so sorry.

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah, yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: , are things like that? , like, not things like that, but runoffs. You were talking about how like, vascular doctors kind of, you know, became more interventionist and kind of started taking over different procedures. Do you still see procedures like that, like the runoffs and different angio is being done as often in, in er.

Joseph Ferreri: , you know, not being in the last few years. No, , we, we were involved when, when I was in the hospital, , when triple A stenting started becoming more and more mainstream, you know, again, we go back to, we work side by side with the vascular surgeons. They would call us up, hey, we got a case. We would have a portable cart with all our balloons and stents and, , you know, devices and introduced, , 18 gauge, , 18 French sheets. And we would go up to the O.R. and we would work in conjunction with them accessing both femoral arteries, putting up wires and doing those procedures. But in the last few years, I really haven’t done any. You know, there hasn’t been much, , , vascular work, , peripheral, you know, our, our primary, , , vascular is all embolization. So we do a lot of, , you know, liver embolizations, like I said, early uterine fibroid embolizations, , and, , and our prostates. Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: So, so many different, you know, things changing in er, but also to, you know, lots of new technologies, , and processes being used in other parts of radiology. , are there any specific new things that you guys have that you’re using at New York Imaging for, you know, different screenings and such.

Joseph Ferreri: , so we do have a very, , a very big, , lung cancer screening program.  , we have ten accredited sites throughout New York that are dedicated to, , to lung cancer screening. , we also have, , you one of our urology practices. They have a system. It’s called Promax. So it’s one of the first in the region. And it’s for MRI guided prostate biopsies. , they’re able to perform them with, you know, incredible accuracy, comfort to the patient. , really precise diagnosis, diagnosis and treatment planning. , and we’re one of the first in the country to utilize this system. , it’s, , you know, very positive and exciting news for patients with with prostate cancer.

 Jennifer Callahan: , I mean, to interrupt just for a second. , I hate to say, like, feel kind of silly to even say this, that even though I’ve worked in radiology for, like, over ten years, I never really, I guess, fully understood how the I don’t know, let me try to think the right way to say I don’t want to say the importance, but MRI is, you know, so much more like such a great tool that is used in terms of like cancer screenings. And, you know, I feel like for a while, like, think about it like, you know, oh, it’s great for like spine work and things like that. And, you know, the more I talk to guests, , on this podcast and we talk about, you know, diagnosis’s of, you know, different diseases or cancers, things like that, that MRI is just like, I feel like it’s kind of like the the one that’s all the way up here. I mean, like, , up here, high wise, you know what I mean? Like, , I was just talking to a breast radiologist the other night, and, you know, she was saying that, you know, for patients who are coming through, you know, that have, , family history and stuff, you know, that she would like to start off with an MRI of the breast first, because it’s actually one of the best screening tools, you know, better than than doing the mammogram and, you know, and then how you’re saying that you’re using it for this procedure, it’s you know, it’s interesting to me and good information to me. So I hope that everyone else is listening kind of feels the same way. . But continue. I’m sorry.

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah. No, that’s, , just, you know, some of the things, like, even with our, , procedures that we, we perform, we’re performing a lot more procedures on the ultrasound guidance. You know, the ultrasound technology has, has, you know, gotten so much better than it was, , most of the, , liver, , kidney, , biopsies where they’re all done on the. We do them on the ultrasound, , guidance now. , aside from all of your, you know, your regular vascular access cases and stuff like that, but you know, that that platform that we don’t really even, you know, like, always think about, you know, imaging. But then we sometimes forget about ultrasound. , the improvements that have been made, , in that technology and how that helps, , us and again, that, you know, it all trickles down to, , you know, the patient and there’s a decrease. There’s, you know, less dose, less radiation, less exposure, you know, all the things that everybody is worried about. , so it helps it helps on that end as well. , one of the other things is we do, , pet CT and it’s, , SMA, which is, , prostate specific, specific molecular, , type of imaging. It’s, , we use a, , like with, with the, , pet CT, , we use, , it’s called, , clarify, which would be what you inject. And it’s very specific for prostate cancer, , for, , you know, primary tors, , for prostate, it’s more accurate than the traditional FDG, , which is being used for prostate for, , pet CTS. .

 Jennifer Callahan: I guess does that it like highlights the the prostate differently than.

Joseph Ferreri: Yeah. So it’s, , patients who are, , high risk or very, , you know, have a high risk for, for prostate cancer. , sometimes when they do the scans, you may have something that comes up, you know, a hot spot. , but it might not be the primary prostate this actually looks for, like, on the molecular level, it looks for that specific, , prostate antigen and can find it in bone, , you know, where it’s metastasized to other parts of the body.  , it’s a lot better than conventional, you know, conventional imaging that used to be done. , so, you know, there’s so much, , you know, we talk about technology that’s just some of some of the things that we’re doing at New York imaging, , for our patients.

 Jennifer Callahan: Do you offer these? Well, you said that you do the lung screening at did you say ten different locations? Yep.

Jennifer Callahan: Yeah.

 Jennifer Callahan: And, I mean.

Joseph Ferreri: You can go on the web, you know, patients can go on our website. , you know, if they’re not in treatment, they can go on the website and, and, , you know, call and inquire about it. , I don’t have the specific, , sites that we do it at, but there’s ten locations that we do it at, right?

 Jennifer Callahan: Do you know what the screening involved? Is it like a chest x ray accompanied by something else or.

Joseph Ferreri: , I’m not 100% sure, I gotta be honest with you. Okay, it’s a little bit out of my department. , but the primary is, is the CT portion of it.

 Jennifer Callahan: Oh, okay. Gotcha. , and I’m sure I mean, with everything health related, you have to have, I’m sure, possibly insurance clearance. , so I wonder not. I don’t expect you to have this answer, but I’m just, like, spinning in my head. I’m like, you probably have to have some type of like, you know, you’re a current smoker or a history of smoking or, you know, I’m, assing something like that, you know, for insurance to even possibly cover it. Yeah. , damn. This insurance.

Jennifer Callahan: Yeah.

Joseph Ferreri: I mean, we have a great department, you know, the department that handles all of that, the screening and the insurance, , really working with the patients. , you know, we have, , also because we’re part of New York cancer and blood, , services, , we have what’s called the New York Cancer Foundation. And that is a, , all done on donation. , it’s an almost like an entire organization that’s geared towards, , giving back to patients. Patients who can’t afford things. , we provide medical Ubers, , to and from your procedure,, , we provide patients with, with, you know, , grants for, , you know, to pay pay for rent or utilities. A lot of it, , again, comes from private donations. , you know, as employees, we all have an opportunity to, to help and and give back. And a lot of us, you know, do a payroll deduction that goes to the New York Cancer Foundation. , I think this year we just went I just was at a conference a couple of weeks ago. , I think we raised just about, , a million, around $1 million this past year.

Jennifer Callahan: That’s awesome.

Joseph Ferreri: You know, unfortunate or underprivileged, , you know, families that can’t afford, , you know, some of the cancer treatments and stuff.

 Jennifer Callahan: Honestly. I mean, you had mentioned the medical Ubers. , I think that is one of the best ideas that’s out there. And I applaud your company for doing that. My mom actually has used them in the past not to get on a personal level, but on a personal level. And I mean, it’s great for patients who, you know, say if you’re going to a lot of appointments, unfortunately, there’s only so many people that you probably have in your wheelbarrow to, to take you to appointments. And if you’re going here, there and everywhere and like a few times a week, you know, it’s difficult for patients to, you know, get rides. Maybe they don’t feel maybe they can drive themselves, but maybe they just don’t feel comfortable. Maybe they want the company or, you know, maybe they’re going in for a procedure and they’re just so nervous and they don’t want to drive that. I think that having the medical Ubers are great. And even if you have to possibly pay like $5 as opposed to like paying for like a whole Uber, you know, which could possibly be like $40 to and from.

Jennifer Callahan: And we have patients coming.

Joseph Ferreri: We have patients coming from all over the tri state area. Yeah. So, you know, they’re coming from Brooklyn, Queens, , Staten Island, Westchester, , to any of our, our, , you know, facilities. And, you know, they don’t not everybody drives, , especially when you live in the city. You know, a lot of people don’t have cars, so this is just a great opportunity for them, you know, to be able to get the care and the treatment that they need.

 Jennifer Callahan:  guys this is Joe with me tonight talking about all things great at New York Imaging. And you know the wonderful world of being  an RA out there. Joe I really appreciate your time talking with me tonight and sharing, you know your journey up to where you are now.

Joseph Ferreri: Well thank you Jen. I appreciate you reaching out and contacting me and allowing me to be on the podcast.

 Jennifer Callahan: Oh my pleasure. All right everybody, it’s Jen Callahan and Joe Ferrari aka Ferrari as he told me. , we’ll see you next week.

Jennifer Callahan: Good night.

 Jennifer Callahan: All right, guys, we’re back. Joe and I were just talking, and we just realized that we didn’t ask one of the most important questions. You know, for the night, for technologists that are out there, that if he had any advice, what would he give to current technologists or future technologists? So, Joe, go ahead, tell me what. Tell me your advice.

Jennifer Callahan: , I would.

Joseph Ferreri: I would say my advice would be do what you love and love what you do. And that is a that drives your passion. You know, you have to you have to be doing something that you like to do and, and are passionate about it. And at the same time, you have to love what you’re doing.

 Jennifer Callahan: I couldn’t put it any better. All right, guys, we’ll see you later.