Our Standards
Why doctors and patients trust us.
Why you can trust us, too.
Thermologists
At Thermography of Houston we realize that the quality of interpretation directly determines the quality of our service. This is why we have chosen to partner with Electronic Medical Interpretation (EMI), a professional group of board-certified thermologists. At EMI, only medical doctors (MD or DO) are eligible to receive the necessary education and training, which is provided by the American College of Clinical Thermology (ACCT).
These doctors represent a variety of specialties such as Emergency Medicine, Functional Medicine, OB/GYN, General Practice, Radiology, and are very passionate about thermology. Pathology falls within their scope of practice. This group is 20+ strong and provides peer-review as well as second opinion options. Practitioners are welcome to consult with EMI on a report.
Technicians & Protocol
All thermographers/technicians at Thermography of Houston are trained to take thermographic images according to professional standards and protocols. Certification training is provided by the American College of Clinical Thermology (ACCT) in Fort Myers, Florida.
In addition, we are passionate about providing a stress-free experience for each person that walks into the office. First-time clients frequently comment on their appreciation for the compassion and professionalism of the technicians.
Equipment
Thermography of Houston solely uses the Meditherm Med2000 system. This camera is a Class 1 medical device that was designed and manufactured exclusively for medical application. The Med2000 has a 20 year history of successful performance and the reliability of the Meditherm system has been proven worldwide.
-
Built in a facility right here in the United States. Meditherm products are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements.
-
The Meditherm FDA Manufacturer registration number is: 3006111110.
-
The EC Conformity classification is: MDD Annex IX, Rule 12, Class 1.
-
This camera takes over 80,000 temperature readings in a click. Via digital technology, that data becomes a thermal image in real-time on the computer screen and is then saved in the patient's electronic file.
What's the difference between Meditherm
Med2000 and other infrared cameras?
Most FPA systems are designed primarily for industrial use and detect temperatures from 0°C to well over 150°C so the sensitivity of the detector array is spread over a much wider potential temperature range, (Temperature difference from hottest to coldest or the window of temperatures detected) Although this range can be adjusted it is the automatic averaging of the hottest and coldest measurements recorded throughout the whole image which are constantly changing that cause problems and further confuse the results.
The actual picture of the patient seen with FPA is a 'colormap' divided throughout the total range of temperature seen by the array. The colors that are used in the thermogram are divided throughout the whole range of temperatures detected, i.e. the background around the patient will be using up some of the allocated colors (and sensitivity), hence a loss of specificity. Features like 'edge enhancement' are also used at the expense of specificity.
Industrial FPA technology is not as suitable for medical applications because of its averaging of groups of pixels in order to handle the 'bad' pixels, thermograms produced with un-cooled FPA also suffer from 'thermal drift' and poor range control.
To achieve usable results with an industrial FPA very strict operating protocols have to be followed.
The optics used with industrial FPA systems actually reduce their detection accuracy as these lenses can stop from 10% to 20% of infrared radiation being detected.
Using a small handheld industrial FPA camera each image is viewed in a proprietary format, which requires processing with industrial software.
Meditherm med2000™ is designed and calibrated for optimal operation in the narrow temperature range pertinent to, and specific for detecting and recording metabolic heat (10°C - 40°C).
The Meditherm med2000™ can apply specific and stable temperature ranges necessary for interpretation during or after scanning
Thermal mapping is more accurate with the Meditherm scanning technology because each pixel is an individual temperature measurement (sensitive to 0.01°C ) that can be compared to any other pixel, the Meditherm med2000™ can and does apply its total color range, (and range of temperature) to the patient alone which gives us far more sensitivity and specificity!
The accuracy and reliability (repeatability) that the Meditherm med2000™ achieves is in part due to the efficiency of the thermoelectric cooling of the detector, (our system does not suffer from the problems of 'thermal drift' as do some un-cooled cameras).
This isn't always easy in practice, but the increased sensitivity and specificityprovided by the Meditherm med2000™ allows you to still record accurate images with far less critical protocols.
Meditherm med2000™ does not rely on lenses but can focus a region of interest from 2" to infinity while still detecting 100% of infrared radiation.
Meditherm med2000™ instantly saves each image to the laptop or PC with no intermediary steps. Image manipulation and statistical data is instantly available for each and every image whether saved or not.
Thermograms produced by the Meditherm med2000™ are stored as TIFF images, which can be accessed and manipulated with a wide range of off-the-shelf application software.