Training time
One big trend in the injector industry is that a number of companies are starting to jump into injector training.

"There is a big market for it. Everyone recognizes the size of the injector business," Mangione says. "Every sizable hospital has at least three and the bigger places can have upward of 12 injectors in one hospital. The business is huge. Maintaining them is important."
MEDRAD offers its own training programs to help customers get the most out of their machines. Aftermarket parts provider ReMedPar has also started offering training classes on injectors and Maull Biomedical Training specializes in injector training.

"The training that takes place on these injectors is really very simple," says Maull. "By far the biggest challenge to training is convincing a biomed manager that his people can take the service of these contrast injectors over in-house."

Maull believes a lot of biomed managers are intimidated by these pumps and cites some examples as to why they would rather stay away.

"Some biomed departments are leery of working on contrast injectors. They may just be pumps, but they are pumps in the imaging department and some service engineers are intimidated by that," he says. "They also believe the injector is a more complex piece of medical equipment than it really is. The truth of the matter is, these injectors are just piston pumps. They operate on the same exact principles and concepts as a PCA pump, they are just capable of injecting at much higher flow rates."

Another concern may be more valid. Since the injectors can go as high as 1,200 PSI in some instances, they fear the high pressures because they may not understand the purpose of the "pressure limiting" on the devices.

"What the service specialists, and in many cases, the operators of the injectors don't understand is these high pressures are only produced in the syringe," Maull says. "The pressure produced in the tubing is nowhere near that high. The service engineer sees pressures in the triple digits (or higher) and is naturally cautious. Once the service engineer understands the dynamics of the pressure built-up in the fluidic system and the purpose and concept of 'pressure limiting' the fear and anxiety of working on a pump capable of such high pressures is alleviated."

The training involves everything from lectures, learning the functionality and basic operations, and understanding the tools and test equipment needed to properly maintain these injectors. The students receive a service training manual, which covers, in great detail, the proper operation, PM procedure and calibration/calibration verification procedures. They also receive a PM/calibration check sheet that follows the service training manual.

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