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First X-ray picture
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen takes the first x-ray picture, showing the skeletal composition of his wife's left hand. (Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany) -
Period: to
History of Medical Imaging
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Hot cathode x-ray tube invented
William Coolidge invents hot cathode x-ray tube which greatly improves on x-ray's visualization. (Mass., United States) -
NMR spectroscopy discovered
Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell came up with the idea to use magnets to take pictures of a living being with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. First step of MRI. (Mass., United States) -
First prototype CT scanner
Godfrey Hounsfield's original CT project proposal (London, UK) -
First clinical CT head scan
British engineer named Sir Godfrey Hounsfield and Dr. Alan Cormack use their prototype EMI Mk1 head scanner (London, UK) -
First Body CT Scan
Body scan of Hounsfield taken on the prototype scanner in the laboratories and shown at Bermuda conference on 14th March 1975. -
First MRI full body scan
First MRI body scan on humans, by Raymond Vahan Damadian et al (Nottingham, UK) -
30 million MRI scans in 2007
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Two billion x-rays per year in U.S.
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70 million CT scans in U.S. per year
Since 1980 the frequency of scans has increased by 3 million per year.