By Kevin Shereves
kevin@caymannetnews.com

KY Imaging, an outpatient medical imaging facility, hosted a Continuing Medical Education (CME) Conference at the Westin Casuarina Resort and Spa in Grand Cayman on Monday, 22 June.

The new facility will soon open its doors at the West Shore Centre on West Bay Road and will provide a range of diagnostic procedures.

Services will include MRI, MRA, CT scanning, x-ray with nuclear cardiology, whole body bone scans including general abdominal, gall bladder and renal bladder sonograms, and female pelvic & male testicular sonography using state-of-the-art technology providing quality images.

Dr Dennis Rossi, KY Imaging Medical Director, has been recognised as one of New York’s top doctors. He was involved with the creation of one of the original eight MRI facilities in the world in 1985 and has performed and interpreted over 350, 000 MRI examinations and over 150,000 CT studies. He is also credited with reading countless x- rays, sonograms, dexa scans and mammograms.

“MRI is the modality of choice for diagnosing diseases such as cancers in the brain, neck, abdomen as well as neurological and orthopedic abnormalities and conditions of the central nervous system,” Dr Rossi said.

“MRA is useful in evaluating aneurysms and arterio-venous malformations. KY Imaging offers imaging with excellence and we will provide CT, MRI, x-ray with nuclear cardiology, and nuclear medicine services as well as breast imaging.

“We want to bring a women’s health initiative to the Cayman Islands focusing on the heart and nutrition and we will be applying radiological procedures.”

Dr Gary Starkman specialises in neurology and pain management and will be available to see patients at the KY Imaging centre for one week each month.

Dr Starkman said: “We treat chronic pain, back pain, osteoporosis pain, diabetic neuropathy, and rheumatoid arthritis pain. Cancer and non-cancer pain are the same and there is no difference in how you treat them. Treatable neurological conditions can be treated and remain stable for long periods of times including epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.”

Dr Allison Edwards specialises in cardiology and internal medicine and will spend one week each month with patients at the KY Imaging centre.

Dr Edwards gave a presentation at the CME conference called “Heart Disease, A killer in our midst”.

“The heart is a muscle and needs to be exercised and the more you exercise it the stronger it gets. Cardiovascular disease is no longer a disease of the elderly. If the head of the household has heart disease, this affects the children as well as the company that the person works for. It will also affect the community, the city and the nation. Heart disease creates a chain reaction,” she said.

She attributed some of the causes of heart disease to bad habits such as inactivity and obesity or tobacco and alcohol abuse.

“Heart disease could also be linked to genetics, sex, race and age. The number one cause of heart disease and sexual dysfunction is diabetes,” she said.

“Diabetes ravages the whole body and is more prevalent in people of Hispanic and African decent, however, I believe that we will find a cure for diabetes during my lifetime and we intend to do battle with heart disease and we are going to win.

“Smoking is the single most risk factor for coronary artery disease, including second hand smoke which is very damaging for the cardiovascular system. Salt should be avoided altogether especially if you are of African or Hispanic decent. As a preventative measure it is important to get tested for traditional or non-traditional factors. Heart Disease is a killer in our midst.”

Dr Greg Hoeksema, Medical Director of the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority, said his organisation’s staff have benefited from KY Imaging conferences.

“Many of our staff had the opportunity to attend the CME Conference presented by KY Imaging and they were all appreciative of the learning opportunity,” he said.

“We regularly share these sessions with our private practice colleagues to maximise the medical education that benefits the people of the Cayman Islands. Likewise, we always look for new ways to build on the partnerships we already enjoy that enhance the medical care and services provided to our patients by local private physicians and visiting specialists.”