By Turning Medical Tests Into Adventures, Doctors Are Turning Children's Fear Into Fun

Medical scans are super stressful no matter how old you are. Besides already worrying about possible results, many of the big machines are overwhelming and strange. 

Now imagine you're a young child. Even if you may not fully understand what's going on, you know one thing for sure: the big, noisy machine is pretty darn scary.

Most MRI scanners are designed for purpose, not looks. 

It's kind of like being swallowed by a dark tunnel, which freaks me out and I'm over 30!

It was witnessing a scared child before a scan that made GE Heathcare industrial designer Doug Dietz decide he wanted to try something new.

For terrified children, laying perfectly still for up to 30 minutes is impossible, resulting in children needing to be sedated. 

So Dietz teamed up with the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to try out a new idea: making the act of getting scans into an adventure. 

Prior to the test, the hospital was sedating nearly all children who required an MRI, and more than 80% of those needing a shorter CT scan.

Kathleen Kapsin, the hospital's radiology director, knew that scanning without anaesthesia was both safer and faster, so she was looking for ways to lessen the need for it. 

The project is now called the Adventure Series, with different themes such as pirate adventures, flights into space, and jungle safaris. 

Besides decking out the rooms and machines in the most adorable decor, the project focuses on immersing the child in the story. 

The day of the tests, the children are given stories and coloring books connected with the adventure they'll be a part of, and while in the machine, they're fitted with special goggles that play related videos.

While initially skeptical, the technicians quickly noticed the change in the children and began getting into the act. 

They matched their scrubs to the theme, role-played with the children, and even began picking out toys to include. 

As for whether the experiment was a success, in the months leading up to the end of the fiscal year, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh was forced to sedate only 27% of children in need of MRIs, and for CT scans, the number was less than 3%. 

Those numbers are amazing, but for Dietz the greatest reward was hearing a child ask if they could go on the adventure again tomorrow. 

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