Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hatley Helps Design Digital X-Ray Machine

Jerry Hatley of Brownsville, Texas, formerly of Gurdon, has played a major roll in designing and implementing an innovative new digital x-ray machine in his position as imaging department director at Valley Regional Medical Center (VRMC) in Brownsville.

Hatley worked with the General Electric manufacturer to produce the $250,000 picture-archiving communication system (PACS). The machine has been in use at VRMC since January.

With his invention if you had to have x-ray images taken, the doctor could receive them in moments on his computer via e-mail, instead of hours or sometime days for the film to return to his office. "Anywhere there is a phone line your doctor can review your x-ray images," Hatley says.

Hatley is a graduate of Gurdon High School. He received his bachelor's degree in education at Ouachita Baptist University.

Afterwards, Hatley joined the U.S. Navy, which later paid for his college as he earned a bachelor's degree in science and health care management at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Ill.

Hatley is the son of Jim and Odessa Hatley of Gurdon.