Junior and Senior Technologists Reflect on Cincinnati Children’s

Photo: Ann Gramling (left) and Lori Muench (right)

The International Day of Radiology is an annual event promoting the role of medical imaging in modern healthcare. Throughout the week of November 8, we are celebrating and honoring our radiology technologists. We have two current ultrasound technologists, Lori Muench and Ann Gramling. Lori is a senior technologist with over three decades of experience and Ann with a year under her belt. Read on to see why they chose to be technologists for Cincinnati Children’s Radiology.

Lori Muench

I began my career at Cincinnati Children’s in 1982, working as a technologist in x-ray for several years until an opportunity came up to train in ultrasound. Ultrasound was a developing area of technology and new to Cincinnati Children’s. I have been working in ultrasound ever since and have seen many changes through the years. In the beginning, we had only three rooms, one of which was three walls and a curtain.

The original building no longer exists. The Radiology Department moved to its current location in 1994. The new location allowed us to have four scanning rooms, but many subsequent renovations and an increasing number of patients have led to our department growing to six individual rooms at the main hospital, two rooms at the Liberty campus, and a room at four of the neighborhood locations.

The original method of producing images involved the use of developing film in a dark room with a frequent risk of the film being double exposed. Now we use digital imaging, storing these images on computer servers. Cincinnati Children’s has always had state-of-the-art equipment, yet it’s amazing to see how much technology has advanced over the years and how it has impacted our work. Imaging updates have improved the quality of our images, decreased our study times over the years, and allowed us to increase the number of exams we do daily as well as the level of difficulty.

The time that I have spent at Cincinnati Children’s has been very rewarding. I have shared my career with caring and talented individuals and wouldn’t change a thing. I’m proud to be part of such a great group and continue to look forward to sharing my knowledge with the next generation of ultrasound technologists.

Ann Gramling

My ultrasound career began at Cincinnati Children’s about a year ago when I started a clinical rotation as a student from Cincinnati State. I immediately found my niche. I love the patients we serve, the variety of exams we perform and the great technologists and radiologists with whom we work. When I was given the opportunity to continue my career as an ultrasound technologist at Cincinnati Children’s, I did not hesitate. The level of knowledge that the staff technologists possess in pediatrics is invaluable. Several of the technologists have been working here for many years and have seen the field of ultrasound develop into a very useful method to assist in patient diagnosis and treatment. They have witnessed first-hand all the changes that ultrasound has gone through.

The ultrasound technologists are very passionate about the work they do and inspire me to gain as much knowledge as I can from each study. I learn something new every day. I am looking forward to the rest of my career at Cincinnati Children’s and can’t wait to see how the technology improves over the years. Someday I will be the technologist sharing the story of my experiences and how things have changed during my years at Cincinnati Children’s.