Join us for an exciting exploration of the vital role mammography plays in women's health, as we dive into the experiences and insights of Miranda Melton, a seasoned radiologic technologist with over 25 years of expertise in the field. Miranda shares her journey from initial reluctance to a passionate advocate for breast imaging, highlighting the importance of proper training and education in overcoming misconceptions about mammography. We discuss the day-to-day realities of a mammography technologist, from the challenges of patient interaction to the thrill of saving lives through early detection of breast cancer. With a focus on community impact, we emphasize how mobile mammography units are revolutionizing access to care for underserved populations. Tune in for a blend of professional insights and personal stories that underscore the rewarding and dynamic nature of a career in mammography.

In this insightful episode of "A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast," host Chaundria Singleton interviews Miranda Melton, a seasoned mammography expert and the Director of Women's Imaging Education at MTMI. With over 25 years in the field, Melinda offers a wealth of knowledge about the motivations, challenges, and rewards of a career in mammography. They discuss the importance of patient education, the physical and mental demands of the job, and the critical role of teamwork in breast imaging. The episode also highlights educational opportunities and training programs offered by MTMI, which boast a 98% first-time pass rate for ARRT exams.

Key Takeaways:

Motivations for a Career in Mammography:

- Miranda emphasizes the desire to help people as the primary motivation for entering the field.

- Highlights include strong patient connections and educational opportunities, with screenings starting as early as age 24 for high-risk individuals.

Work Environment & Physicality:

- The job is physically demanding and requires significant patient interaction to obtain proper imaging.

- It is essential to dispel the myth that mammography is a sedentary or monotonous job.

Challenges & Fulfillment:

- The variety of patients and situations makes mammography mentally stimulating and rewarding.

- A strong sense of teamwork is crucial among mammographers, radiologists, and medical physicists.

Procedures & Equipment:

- Facilities often dedicate specific days to procedures like biopsies.

- Early-stage breast cancer detection is most effective via mammograms, necessitating mammography-guided biopsies.

Interdisciplinary Work & Misconceptions:

- The episode dispels misconceptions about the field, emphasizing the dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of breast imaging.

- Different radiology specializations, like ultrasound and MRI, often collaborate, significantly in breast imaging.

Educational Opportunities:

- MTMI courses provide comprehensive training, including 40-hour essential training required by MQSA.

- The importance of selecting quality educational programs supported by thorough resources is emphasized.

Career Opportunities & Flexibility:

- Various work schedules and the increasing demand due to the pandemic have expanded opportunities, including PRN work and traveling technologist roles.

Continual Learning & Patient Care:

- Emphasizes the importance of continual learning and patient-centered care.

- Understanding patient variety and health conditions is crucial for proper positioning and imaging.

Connect with MTMI:

- Explore MTMI’s online and in-person learning options for aspiring mammographers and existing professionals.

- Take advantage of hands-on workshops, clinical mentoring, and the support network offered by MTMI.

Miranda Melton's Contact Information:

- Stay connected with Miranda Melton on social media for the latest updates and educational opportunities.

Chaundria's Reflection:

- Personal stories underscore the critical importance of breast cancer awareness and quality imaging services.

- Advocates for genetic testing and regular screenings due to high familial predisposition to breast cancer.

Useful Links:

- [MTMI Mammography Courses](https://www.mtmi.net)

- [A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast Episodes](https://www.acoupleofradtechs.com/episodes)

Subscribe & Follow Us:

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For questions or sponsorship opportunities, email us at [info@acoupleofradtechs.com](mailto:info@acoupleofradtechs.com).

Boost your career in radiology with insights from industry experts. Tune in to our latest episode featuring Miranda Melton on MTMI Mammography Training!

The conversation between Chaundria Singleton and Miranda Melton brings to light the crucial, yet often underestimated, role of mammography in the healthcare landscape. Miranda, with her vast experience, eloquently narrates her journey, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs faced by mammographers. The discussion highlights how mammography is not merely a technical job but a deeply rewarding profession that requires empathy, skill, and a commitment to patient care. Miranda addresses the common misconceptions that mammography is a simple, unchallenging field, arguing instead that it presents unique challenges, from physical demands to the emotional labor of comforting anxious patients. This episode serves as an eye-opener, revealing the vital work that radiologic technologists undertake every day, often underappreciated and misunderstood.

Moreover, the episode intricately weaves in the importance of education and continual learning in mammography. Miranda emphasizes the critical role of MTMI's training program in equipping aspiring technologists with the skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the profession. She advocates for the need to stay updated with the latest techniques and technologies in radiology, encouraging both new students and seasoned professionals to invest in their education. The conversation also touches upon the growing trend of mobile mammography, illustrating how technology can be leveraged to reach underserved populations, making a significant impact on community health. This episode is a compelling blend of personal stories, professional insights, and a strong call to action, urging listeners to appreciate the life-saving work of mammographers and consider a career that truly makes a difference.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Medical Technology Management Institute
• MTMI
• ARRT
• MQSA
• ACR

Takeaways:

• Mammography is a physically demanding job that requires skill, patience, and empathy for patients.
• The MTMI course prepares students thoroughly, ensuring they are ready for real-world challenges in mammography.
• Mammography technologists play a crucial role in early cancer detection and patient education.
• The camaraderie among mammography professionals promotes teamwork, making challenging days rewarding and fulfilling.
• Mobile mammography units are essential for reaching underserved communities and providing critical services.
• Many misconceptions about mammography make it seem boring, but it is a dynamic and impactful field.

Welcome to a couple of Rad Techs podcast where we bring you an inside look at the world of radiology from the unique perspective of a married couple of radiologic technologists.

Together, we have over 30 years of experience in the field and are here to demystify the science of medical imaging.

Radiology is the unsung hero of the medical field, providing doctors with crucial images and information that help diagnose and treat illnesses.

Join us as we explore the latest techniques, technologies and innovations in radiology and discover the vital role we play in the healthcare industry.

So come along for the ride as we share our passion for radiology as a married couple.

Welcome to a couple of Rad Techs podcasts.

My name is Chandria Singleton and I'm excited because today we're doing it a little different.

Today you see two of us on one screen.

This is our first live episode and we have a wonderful guest today.

As you know, October is breast cancer Awareness month.

This is September.

So we're getting started a little earlier just to get everybody prepared for this amazing topic.

So we're going to be talking about mammography and today we have Miranda Melton.

She is a registered radiologic technologist, but she has many years of experience in mammography.

I'm going to read her bio here because it is amazing.

You guys.

As the director of women's imaging education at Medical Technology Management Institute, Miranda oversees and manages the women's imaging portfolio in courses and events.

Miranda has strong experience and passion for women's health education and continues to teach in several of MTMI's courses, such as initial mammography training, essential skills for quality mammography, and conquering MQSA and ACR.

That's a mouthful.

She's going to talk more about that too, because you guys need to know how important that is whether you're in the profession or not.

Miranda also continues to provide hands on positioning workshops for facilities across the US looking to improve their quality of work or struggling with the ACR accreditation process.

I totally understand that, Miranda, because I do ACR accreditation for MRI as well as CT, so that's a big beat for a lot of facilities.

We're going to talk a little bit about that as well, but welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Glad to be here.

This was a little bio that I read.

But we want you to tell everyone you know who you are besides just mammography, technologists, some things you like to do, and how you got into mammography.

Okay, well, my name's Miranda.

I am from Kansas City, Missouri.

Love the Chiefs.

Of course, I grew up there, born and raised a midwestern girl.

I really enjoy football season.

Lots of Sundays, Saturdays, Fridays.

I think we even have some Saturday games this year.

So lots of time spent through the week of the year watching football, and then very dedicated to lots of children and grandchildren.

My husband and I have five kids between us and four grandbabies, so lots of family time.

And then how I got into breast imaging, or mammography, started way back.

The very second job I was ever offered came with the offer to cross train me in mammography.

And at the time, I wasn't thrilled about it.

And in the interview, I said, that'd be lovely.

And in my head I said, oh, I am not thrilled, but I ended up getting trained by the girls that had been living in it for the last 20 years before me.

And so mammography, like everything we do in x ray, is kind of a do one or see one, do one, teach one.

So you have to have 25 supervised mammograms.

So they were with me through those 25, but after that, they were kind of like, you got this.

And I'm like, I really don't, though.

So it took a while.

So back then there was this great idea, and I wish it had stuck, but it was send out somebody who can teach women how to do the positioning according to the guide, because mammography existed before then, but we didn't really have anybody coming and showing us what to do, so we were, I would say, making it up as we went along.

You know, you make your radiologist happy and you're good.

Keep your patient comfortable.

And so it was a great concept.

And then I really didn't think much more about that.

I just thought, okay, good for me, right?

So moving on, I have some coworkers that get trained in mammography, and they say, gosh, I don't like it.

Like, why you need to love it.

What's wrong?

And they said, I just don't know what I'm doing in there.

And I'm like, oh, I felt the same way.

Let me show you some stuff.

So I went in with them and showed them a few tricks, and it helped to their image quality.

And again, I thought, yay.

But didn't think much more about it.

Went on and went into management for a while, actually about 15 years.

And then during that time, I was asked to add to one of the things that I did in cross training mammographers because I had some experience there.

So one of the deals at this imaging center was every regular technologist or diagnostic tech is what they called them, would come in and they would have to do x ray, bone density and mammal.

So they'd spend a week with me if they had never done mammal before, and I would get them schooled on how to do it according to the manual, how to get ready for taking the boards, how to please our lead interpreting radiologist.

And so I did that for a number of years while managing and then decided education is really a passion of mine.

I really like it.

I think I might be good at it.

So I landed at MTMI about seven years ago and have been with them ever since, doing initial training and other things.

Wow.

So MTMI, you just happened into education.

Kind of sound like me as well.

I just happened into education as well.

But it was a great learning experience to take those years of experience that you've had, obviously, to be able to help other people learn what maybe you didn't have, because it sounds like you didn't have any positioning equipment.

Is that correct?

Right.

Well, we didn't have, like, we had just hands on training, so just your coworkers would show you how to do stuff.

And so, but if you can't mimic exactly what they do and they can't explain it any other way, then you're like, okay, I see what you're saying, and I see what you're doing, but I don't know how to make that happen.

When you have a positioning specialist or, like, what I like to do is be able to break it down in words they can understand and then demo it with your patients and kind of be able to show, here's what you're doing.

Here's what I'm asking you to do.

And then light bulbs begin to go off, and they're like, oh, okay.

And it's a very muscle memory job, so you have to retrain your muscles.

And that can be hard to ask of a technologist.

And one of the things that the positioning specialist taught me to was how to pull the breast forward in a different way.

And that gained so much millimeters of breast tissue, which was making my doctor happy because he had already called me to the carpet and said, your cc's are too short.

And I was like, I don't know what that means, but I'm gonna make it better.

And I went to my coworkers and was like, what do I do?

And they said to me, I don't know, and you'll get better.

They just kept saying, you'll get better, and when all this light won't go off.

So she showed me just a hand technique that made it better, and I was like, gotcha.

Okay, so light bulb moments.

Yeah, that's, that's what you need.

So I find that to be very interesting because this is our first time talking about this.

This is our first time talking about this.

And y'all, as a student who's taken this course before someone, I don't do mammography, but I do MRI of the breast.

And I said, I need to learn really what happens in mammography because we're dealing with mammography patients.

I'm not really understanding.

I'm kind of just doing and just not really understanding why I need to ask for this from their last memo or why I shouldn't be doing that breast MRI if they're not mincing at this time.

And, you know, what is the bracket?

This and the bracket.

I had no clue.

And when she's talking about not grabbing enough breast tissue and having the right training, I mean, I can really understand that because that was one of my hardest things.

Washington being able to get enough breast tissue and every breast is different.

And I'm just thinking of how in the world did you start out with no kind of training like you give now.

And I feel like you are in a perfect position to teach people mammography because of your length of experience and kind of remembering where things were and how you were trained, which was the best training that you had at that time, but now there's better.

And you have someone who can empathize and sympathize you guys with where things were, and she knows the pieces that were missing and how to put that together.

Am I surmising that right?

Absolutely.

Yeah, you absolutely got that right.

And I mean, there's a lot of great mammoths out there that are good at doing the job, but they don't know how to teach someone else how to do the job, do you know what I mean?

So I feel like I was given a gift and being able to do it both ways, being able to perform well and teach what I'm doing and break it down for people of techs just are not that skilled in being able to show you, here's what I'm doing.

And like I said, muscle memory.

Sometimes you don't even know what you're doing.

Like, I had to break it down when I decided I wanted to teach it.

I'm like, okay, let's pen and paper, and we'll get a camera, and we're going to go step by step.

Like, what do I do for step one in a CC?

And I really didn't know until I went step by step with some coworkers.

And one was the model.

One was recording me and writing things down.

And when we broke it all down, I'm like, man, I do a lot of things I don't even know I do.

And so some of it served me well, and some of it, I was like, okay, I wonder why I do that.

Maybe that's why I'm getting this mistake on my image.

So it just kind of all came together and evolved.

And I think that that's the missing piece in a lot of departments is that I agree.

I really love.

We're going to transition from knowing all about Miranda now, am I?

I'm good.

Okay.

I couldn't hear any of this.

We're going to transition now because Miranda's giving us a little bit about why she is perfectly qualified, you guys.

And I'm learning here, too, but I want to talk because people have misconceptions about mammography.

I know.

I was one as well until I took MTMI's course, and it really gave me some insight of our coworkers in other medical imaging.

And I feel like in medical imaging, we should know what each other do in each other's fields.

Not that we can do them, but it gives us a healthy respect for each other not to put different modalities on different levels.

You know, sometimes people, oh, that's the top tier.

You don't know what you don't know.

And I didn't know anything about Mamo except the ones that I got since I was 24.

I've been getting memo since I was 21.

That's very limited, right.

In the medical imaging field.

So walk us through what a day, a typical day looks like for mammography technologists in the field.

Okay, well, in today's imaging, we in the breast departments, we move pretty quickly with digital technology.

Some of the scans are short as 6 seconds.

And so, I mean, they'll sell you on, you can get a screening mammogram done on an average patient that moves well in ten minutes.

So some departments will take them up on that and we'll do screening mammograms every ten minutes.

So I would say, you know, most technologists in a busy center are going to do, you know, 15 to 18 patients a day.

And screening mammogram consists of four images, two pictures on each breast, and then occasionally we have to add a couple more.

Depends on her tissue pattern type, maybe her body habitus.

So, you know, we're going to bring every patient in the room, we're going to go through an interview process.

We have to know her journey and hormones.

It speaks volumes to her risk factors.

And so we need to start from the beginning and learn all about her history in hormones and whether she's had children and done any breastfeeding.

We gather all her patient history, personal and family, figure out kind of what her risks are, and then we do those four pictures and then the radiologist takes it from there.

In this modality, UNLike some of our others, the radiologists heavily rely on us getting all the breast tissue pulled forward.

So you got to make your patient comfortable.

She's got to soften those shoulders a little bit and trust you in order for us to get all those millimeters of breast tissue pulled forward.

So it is sometimes I say we're counselors in the room, we have to be ready for tears, we have to be ready for jokes.

You have a lot of fun, you have to get close to your patient, so she's got to know that, okay, I can trust you.

Come on in.

And by the time it's over, you know, we're usually pretty good friends, patients and I.

And, yeah, I mean, it's a busy day, it's rewarding.

And most mammoths are in it because they love it.

A lot of mammo techs are sad to leave.

They're scared to come into it, but they fall in love with it while they're there.

And then, you know, when they retire, they miss it.

But yeah, it's a, it's a busy day full of lots of interviews, lots of hugging and leaving, feeling really rewarded.

So that gives us a nice little glimpse because this is, I've had mammograms since I was 24.

But this is the question I wonder, like, if I was to be a new student grad and I was thinking of going to take an extra certification.

I just did an Instagram post about what are some practical ways that you can look at what modality you want to go?

Because I see a lot of social media posts that show this.

Everybody sitting back with their tumbler, drinking water while they're pressing the MRI button.

Right.

And I'm a realist.

I'm very realistic that it depends on where you work.

Absolutely.

Some water, right?

Absolutely.

You're even gonna get some water.

So that all depends on where you work.

So I try to paint a realistic picture.

So I want to paint a realistic picture for people with mammography, because I do feel like people are really zeroing in early in their career on social media.

Trendy MRI, CT, different other ones that look glamorous.

Right.

But I try to encourage people, look for your long term career goals.

Absolutely.

So I did a post that when you go to radiology school, stick with the specialties that all have radiology still as their basis.

Go for those.

If you, you know, think one or two, but go for those.

And then if you want to do something else that's not a radiology based ionizing.

Radiology, ionizing, radiation based background like MRI.

That's a whole nother concept.

That's not what we learn it.

Exactly.

So you kind of have to turn your brain off and turn it back on if you want to go back while you're already in the whole radiation.

Ionizer.

Radiation.

Keep going.

Right.

What?

How could you paint mammography for new students just coming out of radiology school or in their second year, first year, trying to decide mimos.

Boring.

All you do is.

I beg to differ.

Right.

But I'm going to let a pro tell us why they should look at it.

I definitely think that what you need to know about mammal and early in your career is that, you know, most of us, I feel like, get into it because we want to help people.

Right.

And so this really is that type of modality where truly you are helping someone.

You know, everyone has to come in to get those screening mammograms.

High risk patients are gonna start early.

So you started at 24.

A lot of women are gonna start that young and continue to go all the way through.

A lot of our patients will not have to come in until they're 40 and above, but through the years, they've heard all these horrible things about mammography.

And so you get the opportunity to really turn someone's opinion around about something in healthcare, make it a positive experience, really be able to educate them, to give them knowledge, to take forward to their families, to their communities, to be able to save a life.

I mean, that's what we're doing in mammography is we're saving lives.

So I think if you are in that hole, I want to help people, that this is a good place to go.

Also, it gives you an opportunity to connect with your patients a little bit stronger than you can.

When you're doing any others regular x ray, or what we call diagnostic x ray, you're in and out really quickly.

There's not a lot of time to really connect with your patient and get to know them.

You know, when you're an MRI tech, they're in the scanner.

You're outside the scanner, you know?

And so.

And when you're an ultrasound, you know, the room is quiet and dark, and you're focusing on what you're seeing.

I do feel like in mammography, you can.

You can talk more, and you can kind of, you know, connect a little bit more.

What a lot of people don't know about mammography, it's.

It's a physical job, and so, you know, do it early.

A lot of people want to come into it towards their later years and think, oh, mammo is going to be the great place to go and retire.

And I'm like, well, it is a physical job.

You know, your body to body, you're working those patients upside down and backwards sometimes to get that tissue in there.

So recognize that it's physical, but it's a challenging job.

Mentally, it challenges you.

So if you like to be challenged and you don't want to be bored at work, mammal is definitely for you.

So what you're saying is not a boring, because that's what people love to say, is so boring.

So say that for the people in the back.

Yes, it is not boring, because every patient is a new opportunity.

It's a new challenge.

It's a new body habitus.

And you're like, huh, okay, how do I take you and make it good, or can I do anything different with you?

And so it really.

It challenges you.

It's.

It's like, to me, like when someone comes in with a fracture and you still.

You need to get an elbow x ray, but they want to do this, and you're like, I need you to do this.

And when they can't do that, you got to figure out how can I still get a decent x ray on this patient who can't straighten her arm.

So mammography is like that.

It's a challenging job, and it, to me, is never boring.

I have a lot of fun with my patients, and it's an upbeat department.

I think all of us ladies connect as a group of, as a team, and it's your radiologist and your medical physicist and all the techs.

It takes a village to do this job, and I think it's nothing boring at all.

So I know you guys do biopsies.

Tell them.

Some people are like, well, I don't.

I like being in the OR.

I like being in the thick of things.

There's no excitement in mammography.

There's excitement.

Tell them a little bit more than just, we have this beautiful machine, right?

Exactly.

They do the demonstrations for the students while they're in this course.

If you come to a live course with MTMI, you get actual machines, you get breast vest.

We'll kind of demonstrate some of those things as well, if you keep following.

But we're going to show you how they do that live here.

So you get your practicum, and then you go into a facility and learn as well.

But it's more to MRI than just these machines, right?

Absolutely.

So to do breast biopsy, some facilities are going to have, like, biopsy days or procedure days, and I will say that they do a lot more ultrasound guided biopsies than we do mammography guided biopsies.

However, the earliest stage breast cancer, only shows up well in a mammogram.

And so when you're looking at those micro calcifications, could be cancer, then we are going to have to use mammography guidance, in which case we're going to be doing a lot of biopsies on those patients.

And so, you know, that's a good portion of the cancers we find every year.

So you can do those on tabletop prone tables where it's dedicated fully to just that biopsy.

And you can manage that room like you do a mammography room, where it's all day, every day, and it's procedure after procedure after procedure, and you can get your excitement, you know, and then there have, they also have equipment that you can just attach to this machine, and you can use a big chair, basically, that a patient would sit in, and it can also recline.

But you can do upright seated biopsies with an attachment that goes on this machine.

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah.

And so your patient just sits there.

And they do have to be in compression.

Whether it's a tabletop or an attachment, they're in compression.

So that's the harder part for your patient, but it's also more challenge for you because you have to try to keep them calm, keep them, you know, awake and make sure that they're doing good while the procedure is happening.

So, yeah, it's, there are procedures, there's activity in mammal for sure.

Interesting.

Interesting.

I didn't know about it.

A recliner too.

Yeah.

But it's so interesting how people, I hear people, my 22 years in doing this.

I have friends that are nurses, family members.

They say, oh, radiology seems boring.

I mean, and that's why I bring that up, because people in our field alone, and we've got to be more cohesive in our profession, all eleven plus modalities, because we don't like it when people outside our profession think that all of us are just boring because we sit around and quote unquote, press buttons.

Exactly.

So never do we want to make another modality feel like there on the lower end, educating ourselves about each modality.

We get to see opportunities because as I read Miranda's bio, it wasn't to brag, but it was to show all the things that we can do within our profession and the things that each modality has to offer because I feel like each modality has submodalities within it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we're such a team in breast imaging.

I mean, ultrasound techs have to be a part of our group and MRI techs have to be a part of our group.

Nuclear medicine, you know, helps us once we find the cancers.

And so there's so many parts of us that have to kind of bond together to get this woman through a cancer treatment if she has to go that route.

That's good you said that because, you know, years, when I first started NCT, we were very close with Nick May.

We worked like we were in each other's room helping, doing our studies.

Conjoined.

They crossed over a lot.

Sure.

And now I'm looking at MRI intervention.

MRI and mammography.

And that's why I came to MTMI's course, because MRI does crossover with mammography so closely.

And yeah, this profession I just learned and have so much respect.

I have several friends that have done amazing things in mammography.

Can you talk about the schedule?

Because they all have different types of schedules and I know it kind of depends.

It's very dependent on your facility.

So if you're in a large organization that's very busy, you can do Saturday, you know, screening exams to do diagnostic workup.

You usually want and need a doctor to be available.

And it could be a doctor on site, or it could also be a doctor that you can just communicate with over the phone.

They've got a PAC system.

They can reach, you know, monitors that are mammo quality monitors either in their homes or, you know, wherever in another, you know, sister facility.

So you can do diagnostic workup without having your doctor next door, but you definitely want to make sure that they're available.

So most Saturdays, I would say, are dedicated to screening only.

But you can do Monday through Friday, you can do Monday through Saturday.

You can do them in the evenings as well.

And so a lot of facilities are going to offer extended hours, especially during October.

Right, exactly.

So, I mean, there is, there's, there's opportunity to do 10 hours, to do 12 hours, to do your eight hour shift, if you prefer that.

And again, there is weekends, probably not Sundays, but I would say that there's a lot of facilities that do go into a Saturday.

Good, because that breaks the stereotype of, you know, I didn't go into healthcare to work five days a week, nine to five.

Well, you, we have options too, right?

You can work, like she said, PRN, mammography, text, travel.

Oh, yes, I remember during the pandemic, my breast specialist doctor, she was like, will you come work for me?

She wanted me to come do her breast mris because she couldn't find memo text.

She said they all weren't traveling.

Everybody's traveling.

And several of my friends left and became travelers.

So there's opportunity in this profession.

Do not be fooled about demography.

Now, I did take MTMI's course, and people ask me all the time, recommend a school, and there are a lot of schools out there.

The reason I recommended this, because I took it, I actually took the course.

I don't think I've ever represented another education company or anything.

And I don't tell people my opinion unless I personally went, oh, there's one more, but that's not mammography, but I actually went to that course.

So for me, when I recommend something, it's because I probably took it, most likely, and I'll tell you, I took it.

Right.

But the other part was I have to know someone personally and know and done some research on it, and I've done both with MTMI.

Can you let everyone know how MTMI course is set up for the success of the student?

What are some of the.

So people could come out of feeling comfortable?

Because when people see, oh, five days, no, there's nobody, they're not going to be a mammography.

I could go to MRI school or any other school, CT school for six months to a year, and I'm still not going to be confident, I'm going to tell you that now, not 100% where I'm out there scanning by myself.

Absolutely.

So that's not what we're seeing.

But they do give you the tools and.

Five minutes.

Yeah, break it down.

Absolutely.

So what we do here at MTMI is we prepare you two ways.

So MQSA law is a federal law that governs mammography, and everybody has to follow the rules of that law.

So the law says every mammographer has to have at least 40 hours of training in mammography, and we have to train you in specific subjects.

So anatomy, physiology, positioning of the breast, positioning of breast with implants, and you got to know QC and quality assurance.

So that wraps everything up.

So we're going to give you that knowledge, and most of us are going to want to go on and take the art boards and just get that credential behind your name.

Right.

So even though the law doesn't say you have to do that, believe it or not, most facilities want you to.

Some states may require that you do it, and most techs I know are going to want to do it.

Just, you know, to be able to say, I did it.

That's a success.

Right.

So we're going to prepare you to take that test because all of our lectures are built around the A R.

T content specifications.

There's seven pages of them, you guys, and every single one of them is touched on in our course.

So by the time you leave, you are legally trained, you're prepared to take your boards, and then you have to go and get the clinical side of the requirement under the law.

And to take the boards, we all know there's clinicals you have to do.

So you go on into a clinical setting to finish that side of it.

But you leave here ready to go excited to jump into it.

And, yes, it takes longer than six months to feel comfortable.

I would say, you know, even a year, and you're finally like, okay, 75% of my patients, I'm good, but experience is everything in what we do.

Yeah.

So it takes time.

I'm glad you made that very clear because it depends on the patient.

I mean, I think about, you just gave an illustration about the elbow.

I mean, everybody's not going to come in and just be textbook with any profession.

Exactly.

Sometimes we might be doing it for five years and say, oh, I'm scratching.

My head on this one.

Miranda, can you come over and help me?

Yes.

I think you're always learning in medical education.

Always.

Yeah, always.

But you guys do a great job.

Of course, I felt so confident in the actual place where I took my, the clinical setting where I took my, did my hours.

They were amazing.

Those ladies, they just guided me.

Then they gave me a little push to build my confidence, because if I didn't get that push, I was just going to keep dragging them in the room.

Yes.

And not really relying on what I had been prepared to do.

Exactly.

Very prepared in the workshops to go into and work on live patients.

And when I tell you, out of Vegas, we had, I thought, like, I was like, this is the perfect place to get this experience because you have a wide variety.

And I'm from the south, so it's going to be a different patient population.

Absolutely.

Than here in Vegas.

So I got some good training out here and the women I train with, they were so welcoming.

The facility was so nice.

And I felt like I could, like I could kind of scan on my own.

I know I couldn't.

I'm not saying.

Right.

Yeah, but that's how I felt.

Yeah.

I feel like if you're gonna choose a program, choose a program, because there are a lot, and there are a lot more programs coming out.

But my thing is you spend a lot of money to educate yourself and this is an investment within you.

Yes, absolutely.

You're going to.

And I've invested in myself.

We were talking earlier about the different things that we've done to invest in our education.

If your facility is not cross training, if your facility is not paying for it, I've shelled out money, but it was an investment within myself and it's paid off over the 22 years.

Absolutely.

So I encourage people to do that.

So what are some misconceptions now that we've cleared that up about why MTMI has the best.

You guys have been around for 35 years.

Yeah, right there speaks volumes again.

And a track record of having success.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

And let's talk about that 98% cash, right?

That's what I was just thinking.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, we have, we have 98% of our people that go through the class.

They'll just use our material, our book.

They'll maybe make some flashcards out of it.

We make fun kahoot games.

Did your kids ever use kahoot?

I don't have any kids.

No?

Okay.

I don't know, auntie.

Well, it's really a fun, like, educational game that can give you basically little quizzes, and it's fun and interactive and you recognize that you're learning the material, you're absorbing it.

We play those games in class, and then we let you have access to them outside of class.

And so, you know, we're really setting you up for success.

And by the time I always tell everybody the book is about this thick, you're going to leave here thinking, oh, my God, I have to remember all of this.

But I was like, by the time you take your test, you're going to whittle that book down to about that much where all the rest of it, you know, by heart.

And this little bit you just have tucked up here, it's memorized long enough to take that test.

And then after you take that test, the rest of it you keep with you.

And it's just your experience, and it just builds from there through the years.

But 98% of our students will pass on their first attempt.

And it's important to tell because this is one thing I learned by talking with Miranda and a team at MTMI was, you know, a lot of places may boast about a 100% pass rate, a 90 something percent pass rate, but what are they basing that off of?

How did you guys get those numbers?

Where did they come from?

It comes from our students, directly from our students.

So we have so many people that keep in touch with us on a regular basis.

And so I always tell them, you know, join our Facebook pages, take my email address, you know, and let us know when you're passing these tests.

And so we poll our past students on, you know, their successes.

And people are honest.

I mean, some people are not good at taking a test.

They are fantastic technologists, but they have test anxiety.

And so we've helped a lot of people who've come back to us to say, I didn't pass it, and I don't know what I need to do differently.

And so we kind of help encourage them and get them focused in on what they need to, you know, really sink in on and then get them through their second, you know, and or third opportunities.

But we've had a lot of success with those students as well.

So.

So, yeah, we get the information from our.

From our former students, and this is.

98% pass rate on the art, not on their mock exams.

Correct.

I just want to throw that in there because when I learned that, I was like, wait, so wait, people, you know, you got to kind of do your research on the schools, and it's important because the other thing you just said that I hope stood out to the listeners is they pass without having to make more expense and get other study tools by using just what you guys give them in the MTMI course for mammography training.

That's huge.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I get a lot of people that say, well, I bought this and this and this and this and this.

Right.

You already paid for the main thing.

Why was that enough?

Exactly.

So that's why.

So now want to move over to just a few of the misconceptions.

Again, we talked about people thought it was mathematics.

Boring.

They think you only have to work Monday through Friday.

What are some other myths that people made or maybe one other myth that we can dispel before we move on to all the winning and hero moments in demography?

I would say the physicality, I think, is the one thing that every.

Yeah.

That everybody has to understand is that it is a physical job.

Like, it's not a sit back and sail into the sunset type of ending to your career.

Like, you still have to, you know, work quickly, think on your feet, and be safe with your body.

And I think it, you know, that, again, is the challenge, is how can I attack this in a safe way for me and make sure I'm doing the best for my patient, my radiologist.

So I would say that that would probably be the physical side of it that people might think, you know, I get to sit with my coffee every morning.

It's going to be great.

We have coffee, y'all, but it's on the go.

She's got some open area.

I sure do.

Well, I think that's a great one because I didn't think about that one, because you are right.

People do.

And it kind of you.

I don't think any.

I hate when people.

I hate to even leave people to think, but I get people a lot of times.

I had a friend that's a nurse, she told me she said, boy, if I would have known about radiology, I would have become a radiology tech.

You guys don't have to deal with patients.

Oh, Boyden.

This was my face, right?

And I'm like, is that what people still think to this day and age?

And I feel like starting within our profession first, helping each other to understand that each modality is physical.

Because I'm tell y'all, when I respect for mammography, after I took MTMI's course from mammography training, I was down, like, up under, making sure I had that breast tissue in there, and I was to the side, and I.

I had wheelchair patients.

I had patients that could stand up to your spine.

I had patients.

Just a variety of patients.

We're not even talking about implants, right?

Oh, yeah.

It's just, I mean, spinal issues, a boot on your foot, you wouldn't think a foot problem would create issue positioning abreast, but it does.

Everything starts with where they put their feet and how they lead themselves up against your machine.

And so I'm like, look beyond what.

What you have up here.

We have to look at everything.

And so, yeah, even people that have, like, you know, any kind of sternaler Sternalis issue, if their sternum is bowed out, if it's tucked inward, breast shapes are sometimes so unusual that you're like, huh?

How am I going to get all of that?

And so, yeah, it is.

You know, some people that you think, oh, she's going to be a nightmare are the easiest patients.

They fall right in.

And other people that you think, oh, yeah, easy breezy.

I'm out of here in 15 minutes, and you leave the room sweating 30 minutes later, and you're like, she was so hard.

So, yeah, it's.

Everybody's different.

Everybody is a new opportunity.

I do want to touch on this because I think this is important, and I've gotten this several times in my DM's, and you've been doing mammography for a long time.

People feel like it's too many women working there.

It's going to be drama.

I'm going to tell you, I used to drive trucks with a bunch of men, and it was drama, too.

Right?

I mean, I've never worked in a mammography department, so I'm gonna let you speak on it.

But my thing is, wherever you work, there is going to be drama.

I don't care what profession you're in.

Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love my women, so.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

No, I think you're absolutely right.

And any department is gonna, you know, have its issue.

Any career is gonna have its issue.

I don't.

I've never felt that way.

I mean, and I travel a lot and go in and out of a lot of mammography departments, and they, to me, are always a team.

You know, they always want to do what they can to help each other out.

And everybody's mentality is, let's do what we have to make it successful for our patients.

They want to please their radiologist.

And so I find that it's usually a network of strong women who do the same thing, who have an appreciation for what the day to day is, and they have each other's backs.

That's what I see most of the time.

Good.

Yeah, good, good.

Just.

I wanted to touch on that because I did get that, and that is a concern for people, you know, younger people.

But really speaking positive things, I had a young lady in mammography tech on my podcast recently.

She talked about it, and she was just like, it takes one person to be negative and takes one to be positive to change an environment.

So what you bring into the profession, you know, if you're a negative person and you're going to see negative, negative is not there.

Right.

You can't control things around you.

But why put yourself out and not benefit from a really good career, professional career choice?

Because of what you may think exists.

Exactly.

Fine.

No matter if you work at McDonald's.

Exactly.

Work in leadership or if you work as a mammography.

Absolutely.

You're going to find that.

So let's talk about some wins.

Great stories that over the years you been a part of and experience in.

Mammography, probably the biggest wins that I get or that I feel like we all appreciate, is when a patient comes in with a horrible attitude, they hate what you're about to do before you've even done it.

Some of these women have despised for you, and they've never had a mammogram before.

And you're like, you don't even have your own personal experience, and you're already mad at me, but you can turn them around.

You can, you know, go into this exam with her already hating you and walk out the room with her, and she's like, I'm gonna come back and ask for you every year.

And it can be funny that some people are just having one of those moments where they had a mammogram last year and it was a bad experience for them, and they were like, oh, this tech.

She was so mean to me, and she.

I told her to stop.

And she squeezed me three more times.

And I'm like, I don't know anyone that would do that.

But okay, you know, and I'm, you know, they're telling you this story and you're like, it's not going to happen this year, I promise.

I got you.

And so you get them in there and you're like, I got to look back at last year and see who did last year's images, and you'll find sometimes that was you.

Your initials are on that.

And you're like, now, I know I did treat you like that, but that's their.

Absolutely.

So perception is their reality, and we can't change that.

And so we need to be able to give them a positive experience.

And that's the biggest win for me is if I can turn someone's mind on mammography around, then they're going to go home and they're going to tell their mother, oh, it's not that bad.

You know, they're going to tell their daughters, their sisters, their cousins, everybody.

So that is what I love, and I love educating our patients so that they can go out into the community and get rid of some of those myths.

I don't have breast cancer in my family, so I don't have to get a mammogram.

Yes, you do check themselves.

Absolutely.

I know my husband.

He's a, he's a rad tick, but I still make sure you check.

He's like, I don't.

Yes, you do.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Checking.

That's so, so good.

You guys really advocate for that.

Not forgetting, even though your education for students, you're educating the students to inform their family members.

Absolutely.

To empower people to come and get checkups on a regular basis.

How do you guys, what positive impacts have you had on students careers?

Through the MTMI mammography training program.

You know, a lot of women come to us and want to get into breast imaging because it affected their family.

Breast cancer affected their family in some way.

They lost their mom or their sister or they personally carry a mutated gene and have already had a bilateral mastectomy.

And they want to be in this industry to serve others and to get the message out.

There's nothing better than getting to the end of a course and finding out that this person who's been with you all week is ready to go out and attack this disease and try to save more lives because it affected her family and you've given her the tools to do that.

And she feels inspired and she feels ready and she's not afraid.

And so I love that.

I love being able to help people do the mission that they've set forth for themselves.

Wow, that's powerful.

Yeah, I didn't think about that.

My brain was going towards maybe some have been directors or they didn't think they wanted to be in leadership, but I think that that's a really good personal, impactful story.

Yeah.

Because that kind of resonates with my story of why I love breast MRI and imaging so much.

Because breast cancer has hit my family so hard.

Had five aunts, unfortunately not make it through it back in the eighties, a cousin in her thirties, wow.

My first lump at 24, thank goodness, were cancerous.

But I'm huge on making sure I've got the pink ribbon socks that I wear outside of October.

But I, you know, it's just something really huge.

And because of that, we do carry the gene and my family escape.

My mom, so my mom back in the eighties was the kind of person that read up on things, but she encouraged us to all of her sisters to get the genetic testing.

Back in the eighties.

Wow, nobody got it.

She's the only one that got it.

After we had the several family members, you know, pass, but that empowered me to get it right.

And I have a group of doctors, breast specialists that really are so happy because they were able to help other women.

Right by the story I'm able to tell that this young woman was able, because of her mother back in the eighties, to encourage her to look at her.

We didn't know anything about radiology back then.

I would have had me go to school for that then instead earlier.

But I just, I love that you guys empower your students to have personal stories and then to go out and impact their family as well.

But career wise, how have you guys been able to impact your students?

Have they come back with, oh, I've been able to do this, or helping them to kind of map out a plan?

Oh sure.

So we have a lot of students that come and, you know, they've been hired to open a mammography department for an organization.

It's adding mamo too, right.

It's a big undertaking.

And so part of our class is going to be able to help you understand what you have to do for that.

And then other educational things that we offer can also help you get through getting your facility prepared to open, get through that first inspection, do your accreditation.

So that advances people in their careers and their knowledge and their confidence.

And so I think that there's a lot right now I feel like that's happening where grant money is being rewarded to organizations to get mobile, to go out into the communities that are underserved.

And so that's something that, you know, we've got two ladies in our class this week that are here because their company is buying a mobile and they're going to take it on the road and help people, and they need to know how to do that.

So, yeah, tell us what mobile mammography, if you could summarize for those of us that maybe thought we just had to work in a hospital.

Right?

Yeah.

So mobile mammography is when you put on a mammography unit just like this one into, like, a 40 foot coach.

So imagine you're going camping in glamping, and you get one of those big campers, and it has all the bells and whistles.

Well, instead of having a bedroom, we're going to put a mammography machine in there, and we're going to be able to put two dressing rooms in there and a registration table.

I mean, this thing is like radiology department on wheels.

Yep.

And you can either connect it, like, to a big fifth wheel truck and drive it around, or it can be one that you drive and everything's all connected in one big unit, but you can take it and park it in, you know, local grocery store, parking lots, churches.

There are smaller versions of it where you can put it almost in, like, a passenger van, and you can go door to door if you want to.

And there's an organization that does that.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, go to where people can't get out.

You know, they're bound to their home.

It's just, they just can't get to the doctor, and you can take the imaging services to them.

So if y'all thought mammography was boring in a dead end career, I'm blown away right now.

I'm an entrepreneur.

But just naturally, I feel like in our profession, we just do not give ourselves enough credit for what medical imaging can do.

It's the reason we're the third largest medical profession.

You guys, if you have not thought about what she just said, I want you to just pause, rewind, pause it.

Just hit the back button and go back and listen to that.

Because if you know anything about the United States, there are a lot of underserved communities, and it doesn't mean rule, right?

I had a young lady on maybe a year or so ago talking about that, and it was actually in metropolitan areas where people just would not even take an uber that's paid for them to go get their mammogram done.

Absolutely.

So this is what we're talking about.

This is how you get to serve your community.

You get to think outside of the box.

And MTMI's course is helping you to think outside the box.

It's not just here to give you a course, give you another certification.

I feel like you guys are training people to be not only leaders in the profession.

Yep.

Business owners think.

I mean, who would.

My mind is just so much to this course that you guys should look into it.

I want to talk more about those uncertain students that come in.

You talked early about people not sure if they want to be mammography text, but then they come in and they don't want to leave.

Right.

How do you guys, what are some wins, some hero stories about that?

I think that what our instructors are able to do is just use our personal experiences.

We can tell the story of the patients that come in and touch our lives and kind of turn our bad days around or remind us that it's not as bad as we thought it was.

And we bring that knowledge to the table, and we can take someone who is kind of hesitant about what they're going to do.

You know, the ladies that are in this class that are getting ready to take this mobile out, they're intimidated by, you know, having this responsibility, and they're, you know, after day one, they were like, okay, I'm feeling better about this already, you know, feeling like they've got some help.

They've got people who have knowledge that are going to be able to get them prepared, but they're also starting to see, like, every single day, we build on the lives that get changed and the work that we do.

And I think that that inspiration encourages people to think, okay, whatever it takes, I want to be a part of this.

So, yeah, that's.

Those are the wins.

I think those are some great wins.

And I feel like the school is preparing people.

Whether you are a new student looking to go into mammography or whether you are a seasoned professional coming into mammography, you're going to be fully, fully ready.

I do want to talk about some final takeaways.

If you were talking to new students that were trying to figure out what specialty or how many specialties they want to do, is mammography on their, on their chart, maybe, maybe not, right?

And also seasoned technologists who are looking like and been in the field and felt like they have not taken another step, they want to do something, but they don't have a time commitment.

They're scared of new technology, having to learn something.

How can you talk to them?

So I always feel like when I'm talking to either side, infancy and techs, who, you know, barely done it, a lot of our students are still in x ray school, and they're just, they already know they want to do this.

And then some of our students are like, I haven't been a student in 35 years, and I'm scared to death.

But I kind of like what you said earlier.

Invest in yourself and know that what you're doing by coming into this modality is so much helping our communities.

You know, it's.

I mean, everything starts with radiology.

When you think about it, if you go to the doctor and something's bothering you, they have to look on the inside.

So lab and radiology pretty much give the answers to everything else that we do, right?

They have to know what's going on on the inside.

If it's not obvious from the outside, then they've got to look on the inside.

And so we get to be a part of that, just being an x ray tech and all the modalities.

But in mammography, it's challenging, it's rewarding, and it really is life saving work that we do.

I mean, we have to know if we have a broken wrist and it's probably not going to end your life.

But, you know, if you have a breast cancer that gets undetected, it could take your life.

And if you can find a little bitty five millimeter cancer way up against somebody's chest wall and know that, yes, she's got a journey ahead, but she gets to live.

There's just nothing better than that.

I wanted to be able to talk with the instructor for MTMI's mammography training program because your bio shows you have the experience from the technology side, you have the experience from the leadership side, you have the experience from the education side and the clinical applications.

I mean, you've done it all.

And you've been here in this course seeing people come in with very little knowledge, with seasoned, unsure, and leave out running departments, leave out full fledged mammography technologists not wanting to leave the profession years later.

So I encourage you all to check out MTMI's mammography training program.

Their courses follow Miranda's journey.

We're going to do some behind the scenes while we are here of the program and kind of let you see if you chose the in person course here in Las Vegas, or if you choose the web base, which is she's going to walk you through.

Tell us a little bit about that, if you can.

Sure.

What's the difference between the live web based and online program?

Sure.

So when you're here in our live classes, you're sitting in front of us, you're in the same room with us.

You answer questions in the moment, you know, or you ask questions in the moment.

If we say something that you're like, huh, do that again.

And so, and we get to do our hands on positioning workshops.

So that's the benefit of coming here and seeing what a mammography machine looks like.

And, you know, we have models that put on gowns, and we walk you through the process.

Do.

In demo, if you're doing the webinar during a live course, then basically it is you're still seeing me on camera.

You're seeing everything that I'm doing live in the moment.

You hear the questions from the at home or from the live people.

And then you can also ask questions in the Q and a box, type out your questions, and I see those live, and we'll read your question, answer your question.

You know, give my attention to my webinar audience as much as my in person audience.

And then there's the online self paced, which can benefit people who can't travel, who can't take time off work, who just need to be able to fit it in a few hours each day or on the weekends or during a long holiday and kind of get it done in their own time.

But you're watching a video of everything that we've done during a webinar or a live course.

And so you're seeing everything that everyone else gets to see.

And what we do through the online self paced is we'll give you, like, basically half the video, and then we pause, and then we do knowledge check and their flashcards and their mismatching type things where you're starting to recognize, okay, I heard what she said.

And then we go again, and you watch the second half of the video, and then at the end, we do another knowledge check of the whole thing.

And so you're breaking it up into small pieces.

And I think that that's very fun way to do it and makes you feel like, okay, I'm getting just as much out of this as anybody else did, so three awesome ways to learn from us.

And you guys, if that wasn't enough, please just go back and listen again, because this was a lot to digest.

I've learned so much, and I want to thank you for sitting down with me and having me at your live course.

To learn more about the course at MTMI bimography training course because we just covered several things.

We talked about career growth, the importance of training, mammography, technologist, and also overcoming fears.

If you're interested in the profession, and I encourage you guys, put this on your favorites, listen again so you can really understand what the medical imaging profession has to offer.

If you're a new student graduating radiology school and you're not sure what which path to take, or maybe you want to add another modality to your already RTR, right?

And I always encourage people to get at least one or two, if not three or four.

Absolutely.

It doesn't hurt to be able to add that to your resume and also to look at the sub modalities within and you get all of that preparation here, MTMI's mammography training program and many other courses that they have to offer.

So thank you, Miranda, for your expertise, your time, and anything you want to end out this conversation with to our listeners.

I just really appreciate you taking the time and attention to put a put out there what MTMI does, how great mammography is.

So I appreciate you inviting me to talk and yeah, come see us sometime.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

And that's a wrap for this episode of a couple of Rad Techs podcasts.

We hope you enjoyed our discussion of the fascinating world of radiology and learned something new about the role we play in the healthcare industry.

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