While radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital had always conducted research—adding to the literature through observational papers about the clinical significance of certain radiological findings, for example—the Radiology department had no formal structure for research until the late 1950s. The research program made important strides in the following decades, with the addition of Gordon Brownell’s group working with positron imaging and the acquisition of one of the first computer tomography (CT) scanners. Then, in about 1980, the modern era of Mass General radiology research launched with the advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the convening of a group of researchers eager to explore its potential.
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