Who writes here
James Carter
Founder of ExplainMyScan
I am 35 and I have spent most of my career working with artificial intelligence applied to concrete problems. ExplainMyScan started from a simple idea: walking out of an appointment holding a report you cannot read should not be normal.
I write these guides to explain the vocabulary that shows up in medical reports — what a phrase means, where it comes from, why radiologists write it — so that whoever arrives at their appointment knows what they are reading and what to ask.
What I am not
I am not a doctor or a healthcare professional, and these guides are not reviewed by one. They explain vocabulary and procedures, never your particular case: that is what the person treating you is for, who knows your history and can examine you.
Guides I have written
They all explain the vocabulary of medical reports. None of them interprets a particular case.
- "Clinical correlation is recommended": what it actually meansYou found the phrase in your radiology report and it sounds like a warning. It is not. Here is who it is addressed to, why radiologists write it, and what it says about your results.
- Disc protrusion: what it means on your MRI reportIt sounds like damage, and often it is not. Here is what a protrusion is, how it differs from a bulge and a herniation, and why healthy people who have never had back pain have them too.
- Incidental finding: what it means when your scan shows something extraThey scanned you for one thing and found another. That is what incidental means, it is common, and most of the time it is nothing. Here is what happens next and what to ask.
- How to get your medical records and scan imagesYou have a legal right to a copy of your records, images included. Here is what to ask for, how long they can take, what they may charge, and what to do if they say no.
- How to read an MRI report, section by sectionEvery radiology report follows the same structure. Once you know what each section is for, you can skip straight to the part that answers your question.
- The hospital gave you a CD and it will not open. What to doThe disc with your scan comes with a viewer that will not start, or only runs on Windows. Here is what is actually on it and how to see it without installing anything.
- DICOM vs JPG: what you lose when you convertA DICOM file and a JPG of the same scan look alike on screen but hold very different things. Here is what disappears in the conversion, and when it matters.