Daniel Powers, MD

Daniel Powers, MDBorn in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Powers attended public schools through Junior High School and then went to one of the top prep schools in the Mid-West, Cranbrook for High School. His parents moved to Miami, Florida and he then attended UM south - the University of Miami where he completed his undergraduate work in three years and then attended the Medical School for four more years. He married at the end of Medical School to his still present and only wife and has three children.

Medical Training

His medical training was accomplished at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California where he did a Rotating/Flexible Medicine and Surgery Internship, Diagnostic Radiology Residency and Nuclear Medicine Fellowship over a 5 year period from 1976 until 1981. He took and passed his National Boards in 1977 at the end of internship and was first licensed to practice medicine in California in 1977. He took and passed his medical specialty Board in Diagnostic Radiology during his Residency and became Board Certified in Diagnostic Radiology in 1980 at age 29 and took and passed his subspecialty Board in Nuclear Radiology at the end of his Fellowship and became Board Certified in Nuclear Radiology in 1981. At the completion of his training he became the Chief of Radiology at a small Los Angeles based hospital - Beverly Glenn Hospital in 1981. He began a Diagnostic Ultrasound company that year and became a high volume OB/GYN ultrasound specialist. As the small hospital was changing hands and focus of care, he was given a part time job beginning in March of 1982 doing CT scanning, primarily of the spine, where he became one of the first and highest volume spine imagers in the LA area at a time when spine imaging was just beginning.

Asbestos Experience

During this period he also had the opportunity to interpret chest x-rays on patients exposed to asbestos fibers and did two things to enhance his education and knowledge - 1)  he visited with a professor at UCSF who was doing original research and protocols in obtaining CT and HRCT scans of the lungs in patients with asbestos disease - learned the information and became one of the first and highest volume chest CT/HRCT imagers in California in private practice in the area of asbestos disease at that time and 2) he learned about and did self study for the Federal government certification for MDs in the interpretation of chest radiographs involving patients exposed to coal (coal workers' pneumoconiosis), sand and stone (silicosis) and asbestos fibers (asbestosis) and took and passed on the first try this test for certification as a Federal Government "B-Reader (note - the Feds consider an "A-Reader" a beginner and the "B-Reader" the more advanced "expert").  Since that time the government has required recertification every 4 years and as such Dr. Powers has recertified and passed every time in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Dr. Powers subsequently took courses in MRI imaging in 1985, when such scanners were first made available to him and developed a major practice in spine and later joint imaging.

Imaging Facilities

He started what may have been the first "network" of imaging facilities - time sharing on equipment statewide - utilizing different imaging equipment that was convenient to the patient's home or doctor's office and of different types - both low/open, mid and high strength magnets. At a time when most Radiologists were struggling with a single manufacturer's scanner of a specific strength, Dr. Powers was gaining skills utilizing various manufacturers' imaging equipment with various different MRI magnet strengths. By 1989 Dr. Powers became licensed in most states to allow him to do second opinions of CTs and MRIs and asbestosis and silicosis work across state lines.  He is now actively licensed to practice in 49 states + Washington DC. Approximately 2 years ago, Dr. Powers had the ability to access a student in graphic design and put together a visual teaching file including didactic/written articles and comments on asbestosis, silicosis + coal workers' pneumoconiosis and emphysema which is available on his web site at www.breader.com under the Resource Center. He continues his private practice based in Los Angeles.