Radiology

Dr. John Phillips Dorst, an expert on dwarfism who headed pediatric radiology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, died Tuesday of a brain tumor at Brightwood Genesis Eldercare in Brooklandville. He was 74 and had lived in Columbia since 1972. A prolific researcher who studied genetic bone disorders, he was director of pediatric radiology at the Hopkins Children's Center from 1966 to 1990. While there, he taught medical students, residents and fellows how to read children's X-rays. He retired in 1995.

Baltimore has landed its largest medical convention ever. The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, which will meet here in 2008, is expected to draw 10,000 people to the city and have an economic impact of about $24 million. "That's major league," said Carroll R. Armstrong, president and chief executive officer of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. "We are demonstrating that we know how to do this." This win comes on the heels of BACVA's announcement last summer that the Shriners will hold their annual meeting in Baltimore over the Fourth of July holiday 2005.

Amid a nationally televised tale of heroism and lament at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Elliot Fishman was called upon for comic relief. He's a 20-year veteran of the hospital's radiology faculty, an innovator who has worked with the technology of Apple's Steve Jobs and Star Wars' George Lucas. His three-dimensional magnetic imaging has sparked quantum leaps in medical diagnostics, often at a lower cost than earlier procedures. Yet Fishman's work has been boiled down to this: He's the go-to guy for the National Aquarium.

As far as medical diagnostic devices go, magnetic resonance imaging is tough to beat. The technology, in use less than 20 years, has unquestionably improved the ability of physicians to make accurate diagnoses of a range of diseases affecting organs and other soft tissues, say experts. Now, after almost five years of research, a team of Johns Hopkins University doctors and bioengineers have come up with a way to make MRI even more helpful to medicine and somewhat less arduous for patients.

The star prosecution witness in the corruption case against Larry Young testified yesterday that he gave the former state senator more than $72,000 because he "had to," but he insisted that the payments were not bribes and that Young performed no political favors in return for the money.Sounding at times more like a defense witness, Dr. Christian Chinwuba, the principal owner of two health care companies at the core of the case, told jurors that Young did not demand a bribe and the former state senator never used his political office to benefit Chinwuba.

Dr. Julian O. Salik, 90, Sinai Hospital radiology chiefDr. Julian O. Salik, longtime head of the department of radiology at Sinai Hospital, died Aug. 25 of cardiac failure at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Homewood resident was 90.Dr. Salik moved to Baltimore from New York in 1949 when he took over the department at Sinai, then on East Monument Street. He was Sinai's first full-time appointment in radiology.He had also been an associate professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was an international expert in gastrointestinal radiology.

Carroll County General Hospital has two projects on the drawing board for 1999: the construction of an oncology center in Westminster and the opening of an outpatient radiology center at the nearby Richard N. Dixon Building.The hospital's plan to build a one-story, 13,250-square-foot cancer treatment center on South Center Street is scheduled for a hearing before the county Board of Zoning Appeals on Dec. 29.In the Dixon Building, the hospital plans to renovate the second floor to consolidate outpatient radiology services offered at Carroll County General and at a Poole Road facility operated by the hospital's partner, Advanced Radiology, P.A.The hospital has added services or facilities in each of the past two years.

Carroll County General Hospital has two projects on the drawing board for 1999: the construction of an oncology center in Westminster and the opening of an outpatient radiology center at the nearby Richard N. Dixon Building.The hospital's plan to build a one-story, 13,250-square-foot cancer treatment center on South Center Street is scheduled for a hearing before the county Board of Zoning Appeals on Dec. 29.In the Dixon Building, the hospital plans to renovate the second floor to consolidate outpatient radiology services offered at Carroll County General and at a Poole Road facility operated by the hospital's partner, Advanced Radiology, P.A.The hospital has added services or facilities in each of the past two years.