Tripler Army Medical Center Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Nuclear Medicine Richard Simpson was born in Florala-a small town in Alabama on the state line with Florida. He moved across the country at a young age and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. ICE found out more about this rising start in a recent Q&A.
Q: Where did you receive your imaging training/education?
A: Military Education Training Campus (METC) and Weber State University. Clinical phase: Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC).
Q: How did you first decide to start working in imaging?
A: I was given three job offers within the military (LPN, radiology technologist and respiratory technologist). After reviewing each of the jobs I found that radiology had more interesting options that I wanted to get into.
Q: What do you like most about your position?
A: I love my job as a radiology technologist but working in the Army you have to apply the knowledge that you receive throughout your time and apply it in ways that would work for the field environment. This type of thinking makes you have to think on your toes of ways that you can achieve the best image with limited capabilities.
Q: What interests you the most about the imaging field?
A: The most interesting thing about the imaging field is that we have different modalities that can achieve different information. As I advance within my career in the military and imaging field, I learn new things all the time. I recently had the opportunity to be the supervisor of nuclear medicine and it has taught me a vast amount of information that I did not think about.
Q: What has been your greatest accomplishment in your field thus far?
A: My greatest accomplishment within the imaging field is training new soldiers on anything imaging and passing down all the knowledge that I have gained within my 9 years of being a radiology technologist. I have had the pleasure of training over 100 students within my career.
Q: What goals do you have for yourself in the next 5 years?
A: My goal for the near future is to challenge the ARRT and re-comp on all my CT exams to attain my CT registry as well.
