moved around the torso of the patient being examined, The

_ critical part of the probe is a crystal transducer which sends

out the sound waves and then

~ receives’ them . as” they come,

back.

oo Despite the 1 fact that-the crys- _tals are nearly all-the same price ‘== about $9,000 — Ismail no-

te lospital’s new staff member | ae professional of many facets |

When Mills Memorial | Hos- . pital brought Steve Ramzi Ismail tO, ‘Terrace, the. community gain- -. ed'more than a new ultrasound . a technologist - — it also got a col-.. -- lector of rare artifacts andi an in- -ventor, Ismail arrived here about two ‘monthi: ago as.a general ultra- sonographer and vascular tech- " nologist for the hospital, return-. “ing to Canada after working for ~ a-period in Palm Desert, Cali- - :. . fornia. He is a practitioner and - “teacher of the medical uses of. _. ultrasound, the science .of ob-. taining and interpreting internal images of the body’s workings ’ ‘through the. use of. ultra-high frequency sound waves. . It was the inconsistency in the | _ quality of ultrasound equipment ~ that first. brought out-Ismail’s ‘inventive streak. The machinery. “used to get the images includes a hand-held flat probe ‘that. is.

ticed: a wild: variation in the quality and durability of the

“crystals. He discovered that by. - bombarding them simultaneous- ly with continuous. wavesand . - . pulse waves of sound, and then . .. watching the results on an oscilloscope’ (a: sound-detecting - machine that displays wave pat- “, terns on.a screen), he could tell ‘the high-quality - crystals from ‘the duds.

: The. outcome was. the. “Ramzi Procedure’’, which is becoming

trol. :

‘Ismail also points out ‘that

better quality crystals will result in better. medicine because they

_give more accurate readings to

technologists and doctors. With a flawed crystal, measurements of stones, tumors ‘and other foreign bodies and glitches in patients’ physical makeup could be out by as much. as s one centi- meter.

Another invention email has patented and is ‘still developing

_is the “Cry Buster Crib”. This

device i is ‘intended. to allow new

mothers a bit of well-deserved rest — a voice-activated .mech-

anism sets the crib rocking when’

the newborn begins to cry. The collector -

- Ismail comes from. Greek and Arabic ‘parentage. He was born in Iraq, raised in Greece,. and

_spent:much of his life in Iraq,

Lebanon, Syria and Germany

- before moving to Canada in 1980. -

During his time in Baghdad in in

outside the ancient city, located

“near the ruins of Babylon, to dig

for. artifacts. ‘His discoveries from that time are now lodged

‘in a. collection that includes

coins dating back as far as 4,000

B.C. Most of them, he says, are between 150 and 1,500 years

old. Ismail left Iraq while the re- gion was at war, and it was no simple task to get the items out of the country. He hid the col-

- lection in a set of jars containing

household goods. “I think I could even teach:Indiana Jones some tricks,” he remarked. And his collecting activities aren’t limited to coins — he also acquires rare stamps, books,

; postcards and paintings.. Among

"continued on page 2 23°

recognized in’ technical ‘circles © ‘he late 1970’s he began going . amy:

and is destined to. save hospitals everywhere substantial sums of » -nioney. It has also given the crystal manufacturers a method. | and. incentive for quality con-

Steve Ramzi Ismail, the new ultrasound technologist at Mills Memorial Hospital, is also an inventor and collector of artifacts. Here he displays part of his collection of old colns and medailions from the Middie.East, along with a _ medical text from 19th century Egypt. .

Teirace Review — Wednesday, February 15,1989 17°

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