Medical Technology Management Institute (MTMI) began in 1989 when J. Ed Barnes, Ph.D., saw a need for continuing education for radiologic technologists. The company began with basic X-ray continuing education but soon branched out by adding cross training for its customers. MTMI had the first mammography training course to be accepted by the FDA to meet the MQSA requirement. MRI and CT training soon followed along with other modalities. Expansion continued with the addition of continuing education programs for physicists and physicians.
MTMI is celebrating 36 years in business in 2025 with 9,050 programs offered. Since its inception in 1989, 178,000 students have earned 1.82 million credits. MTMI President Brenda DeBastiani and Steve Cushman, Senior Director of Marketing, recently shared more information about the company and its plans for the future.
Q: What is the mission and vision of your company?
A: The Medical Technology Management Institute is dedicated to providing quality continuing education, training in procedures and consulting services on advanced technology equipment in multiple imaging modalities within the medical community.
Q: Can you describe your company’s core services or products?
A: We provide world-class continuing education and training for medical imaging professionals with a specific focus on programs for technologists, mammographers, sonographers, dosimetrists, medical physicists and physicians.
Q: What makes MTMI unique or essential in today’s market?
A: Our programs are taught by working clinical experts with national reputations in their field. What really sets MTMI apart is the breadth of our offering. We cover virtually every modality including radiography, mammography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, bone densitometry, ultrasound, PACS/imaging informatics, nuclear medicine and fluoroscopy.
In addition, we deliver our programs in multiple formats to meet the busy lifestyles of today’s medical professionals. These convenient formats include live training, self-paced courses, webinars, on-demand videos and hands-on workshops.
Q: What milestones or achievements has your company reached?
A: Launching self-paced mammography and CT over the past 8 months has been a milestone for us! Also, we launched our first group of on-demand videos for medical physicists. All of those things have been “in the works” for quite some time.
Q: Are there any recent awards, recognitions or expansions you can share?
A: MTMI is well known in the industry for providing in-services just in time for MQSA or ACR violations or failures. Our industry experts provide additional training to mammographers or radiologists to ensure that their skills meet expectations, and their images pass inspections/accreditations.
Leadership and Team
Q: Who are the key figures leading your company?
A: Brenda DeBastiani is our president, and we have met several milestones with her leadership since her start in April of 2024. She provides assistance in completing projects to ensure success, while truly caring about each employee.
Steve Cushman is the director of marketing, and he has been a key leader within the organization for over 10 years. His quiet leadership and positive personality shines wherever he goes. We have also relied on Steve for many things that are outside of the marketing scope because of his broad knowledge.
Miranda Melton, director of women’s imaging, is our key leader with mammography training, in-services and webinars. She is a respected expert in the mammography world. Her passion for taking care of patients is exceptional. When she provides instructions during webinars, in-services, or positioning workshops, the students naturally connect with her teaching style. They comment on how she can immediately improve their positioning techniques after watching them for just a couple minutes and how passionate she is about mammography. The Las Vegas Breast Imaging Conference, held annually, is one that you do not want to miss (scheduled October 4-5, 2025 this year). The lineup of speakers is being finalized as we speak, and Miranda will not disappoint!
Q: Can you share their professional background and what they bring to the table?
A: Brenda DeBastiani, MBA, CRA, FAHRA, RT(R), has worked in imaging her entire career. She started out as a radiologic technologist and CT technologist for the first 15 years, supervisor for 12 years, and then director for 11 years. She worked in the hospital setting, while actively volunteering with the AHRA since 2004, where she volunteered on the design team, board of directors and was AHRA president 2022-2023. All of this experience prepared her for her role as MTMI President.
Steve Cushman, MBA is a veteran of the advertising industry. Early in his career, he spent 10 years as a consultant for McDonalds working with the new product development team in addition to leading a redesign of the drive-through experience. The following years, Steve drove strategic marketing initiatives for leading companies in agriculture, banking, higher education and healthcare. His initial contribution to MTMI was to introduce simulcasting of cross-training courses and transforming the continuing education program format from an in-person classroom setting to live webinars.
Miranda Melton, RT (R) (M), graduated from X-ray school in 1998 and was cross-trained into mammography. She admits that, at first, she was not good at it but had the opportunity to work with a positioning specialist who gave her tips to improve the quality of her work. Once Miranda saw the improvements, she got very excited about mammography. She was a stay-at-home mom for a bit, and when she came back to work, she began helping her coworkers to perfect their skills. After a 12-year stint in imaging management, Miranda joined MTMI. She first started with webinars and then came on full-time as the director of women’s imaging. She realized that she has always enjoyed teaching others, and that passion has grown. Students comment that Miranda has a soothing voice and creates a bubbly, upbeat atmosphere to learn. She engages her students and explains the concepts with good analogies and her own personal experiences or challenges that she has learned to overcome. Miranda shows students what joy mammography can bring to their lives.
Q: What is the company culture like?
A: MTMI is truly a team-oriented environment. The staff is small and versatile. It’s a roll up your sleeves type of place.
Industry and Market
Q: What differentiates your company from competitors in your industry?
A: MTMI is a single source provider and can meet an institution’s every need because we offer programs for each staff discipline including technologists, sonographers, physicians and medical physicists. We have cross-training in every modality, this helps build flexible imaging teams to relieve the pressure of staff shortages and improve ROI. Our continuing education programs are offered in flexible webinar and on-demand formats to meet the unique needs of each employee. MTMI truly stands alone as the company that provides comprehensive imaging education. MTMI prides itself for being able to support imaging professionals through every step of their career from cross training to new modalities, meeting CE requirements and to developing leadership skills.
Q: What’s your unique selling proposition?
A: As many imaging leaders have already discovered, MTMI can save them money, make their lives easier, keep their staff current, improve patient care and avoid mistakes through continuous education. MTMI is flexible. We can provide imaging departments with in-service training on site, via live webinar and through specialized training created for each individual need. We provide what you need, when you need it!
Q: How has your company adapted to recent industry trends or challenges?
A: MTMI has aggressively invested in offering more programs in more formats. Cross-training for mammography and CT are now offered in three formats: In-person, live webinar and online self-paced. We are significantly increasing our on-demand programs with 25 new programs in 2025. Some of the new on-demand topics include our popular registry programs for mammography, CT, bone densitometry and interventional. MRI and breast ultrasound will be coming soon in addition to our first ever physicist on-demand programs. We are partnering with industry leaders like ScanLab to incorporate the latest innovation in imaging education, scanning simulation. In addition, we are listening to our customer’s requests for payment plan options which will launch in early 2025.
Community and Impact
Q: How does your company engage with the community or support social causes?
A: Because MTMI is both local in Wauwatosa, WI, and remote across the country, each individual MTMI employee is encouraged to volunteer at their local level. In the imaging front, MTMI strongly supports the ASRT “Be Seen” Campaign, and we encourage all imaging technologists to raise the bar in educating others about the profession.
Q: How do you incorporate customer feedback into your processes?
A: MTMI thrives on student feedback. We survey every student at the completion of their program and review the input with instructors and leadership to incorporate continuous improvement. Each and every survey is read, and adjustments are made, where needed.
Looking Ahead
Q: What are your plans for the company’s future?
A: Continued growth and innovation. We are listening to our students who want more self-paced online programs. We are offering new programs in ultrasound, and more formats for medical physicists. We are also reaching out to the medical physicist assistants, as our medical physicist education also meets their needs.
Q: Are there any exciting projects, partnerships or expansions on the horizon?
A: We already have MTMI videos imbedded in Densitas, teaching mammographers better positioning techniques. We already have ScanLab included to our CT and MRI courses, allowing the students 5 months of interactive, virtual scan time. As new opportunities arise, we are eager to partner to improve patient care and to improve our visibility.
Q: How do you envision your industry evolving, and how will your company stay ahead?
A: When COVID hit, our company moved from a total “in-person” education company to a virtual education company. We realized that many students needed that “in-person” educational experience to learn best, so it was brought back as soon as possible. Because we learned that many students appreciate the virtual experience, we left that in place. Self-paced is the new avenue, allowing students to access education when it is most convenient for them. Keeping our educational material updated to reference cutting edge technology has been implemented for 2025 courses, and we will continue to do that. We have to remain aware and responsive to our students’ needs. That will keep our company ahead.
Q: What goals are you focused on achieving in the next 5-10 years?
A: Consistent growth, expansion of physician programs, integration of the latest learning platforms
Personal Touch
Q: What do you wish more people knew about your company?
A: That we are a complete turn-key solution. That we offer in-services for ACR failures or MQSA violations, plus other modality in-services. That we are a leader in medical physicist continuing education.
Q: What’s one surprising or fun fact about your company that readers might not know?
A: That we train more mammographers than anyone else in North America.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: MTMI has been around for over 35 years, and we have been great partners with technologists, physicians, providers, medical physicists and medical physicist assistants, athletic trainers, and physical therapists. We know who we are and what we specialize in. We want to continue partnering with each of you and meet your needs. Let us know how we can help!
