(Philadelphia, PA) - RT Image has chosen the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) as one of its “25 Most Influential” movers and shakers in the radiology industry in 2006. Every year, RT Image magazine presents its roster of radiology’s most powerful people, institutions and organizations based on who has influenced the radiology profession in a positive way in the last year.

RT Image selected HUP for its recent installation of three new, state-of-the-art, high-powered MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) systems. The combination of the three units is a “Radiology First” for any hospital in the United States, which is especially fitting since HUP was the first hospital to get and use an MRI back in 1984. The new machines include a 1.5 Tesla (T) wide-bore scanner designed for larger and claustrophobic patients, a cardiac system allowing physicians to capture a rapidly beating heart and a 3T scanner permitting sharper brain imaging.

The publication also noted HUP as an innovator in PET/CT technology. Employing the world’s first advanced “time of flight” technology, pioneered in part at Penn, HUP’s uniquely outfitted new PET/CT system captures an amazingly precise simultaneous structural and functional “look inside the body.” By being able to retrieve these excellent high-resolution functional images of the body, radiologists are better able to detect what is wrong and how to treat it.

Also, researchers at Penn will soon be armed with a new, cutting-edge technological tool in the field of radiology - a 7 Tesla whole-body MRI system. Penn’s Department of Radiology will become the first in the Greater Philadelphia region to acquire one of these ultra high-field scanners. Only a handful of them are in operation elsewhere in the United States.

“It is an honor to receive this distinction. Penn has a rich history of ‘blazing trails’ in the radiology field,” comments Nick Bryan, MD, PhD, chair of radiology at Penn. “With our ongoing innovative additions in radiology systems and technology, we are in constant pursuit of higher quality images for better diagnoses and treatment of our patients.”

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PENN Medicine is a $2.9 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn's School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #3 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals, all of which have received numerous national patient-care honors [Hospital of theUniversity of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center]; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.