Going Mobile
By Rod Daniel, Ravalli Republic Newspaper 01/30/03

Clients of Hamilton chiropractor Gilbert Roberts might wonder what he’s doing on the two days a week he’s not in his office. Many of them probably don’t know he’s out driving around in his new customized van.
It’s not a mid-life crisis that prompted Gil and Teresa Roberts to take to the open road in their new van, but rather a unique business that may help bring relief to people suffering from neck and back injuries.
The couple started DMX Imaging of Montana last November when they purchased a mobile digital motion x-ray lab which allows them to x-ray patients while they are moving. But even though the new state-of-the-art lab – currently the only one in Montana – sits in the back of a spacious Ford van, it’s the patients that move around during the x-raying, not the van.
“Motion X-rays allow us to see the spine in motion,” the Hamilton chiropractor said. “It’s a whole new way of looking at X-rays, made possible by digital technology.”
And just as digital photography has opened new doors for amateur and professional photographers, Digital Motion X-rays have improved the means by which spinal cord and other injuries are detected, according to Roberts.

"They really tell a whole different story by picking up damage that wouldn’t show up in still views, CAT scans and MRIs,” he said. “The days of the doctor saying, ‘don’t breath and don’t move’ before taking an X-ray are over.”
The fact that the motion x-ray machine is in a one-ton van, however, gives its owners the option of toting the technological wonder to other locales. According to Roberts, the machine’s mobility is a big reason the couple bought it and started their new business.
“We will be taking it to the seven biggest cities in Montana,” Roberts said. “We’ve already been to Missoula, Bozeman and Helena, and we’ll soon be going to Kalispell, Billings and Great Falls.”
Roberts said acquiring the new machine is the culmination of a journey he began five years ago into the much-maligned world of whiplash traumatology.
“You hear of whiplash and you think immediately about people faking injuries to get money after an accident,” he said. “But I’ve had so many people come to me with real pain that couldn’t be detected using still-view X-rays. The truth is whiplash is difficult to diagnose unless you can see the spine in motion,”
In 1999 Roberts became certified in whiplash traumatology, and later he received further training and advanced certification. He is also a certified low-speed, rear-impact crash reconstructionist.
“In all my training it became more clear to me that motion X-ray imaging is necessary for detecting these types of injuries,” Roberts said. “The bottom line is these people aren’t usually faking; they are in real pain.”
Roberts, who still devotes most of his time to his chiropractic practice, said he hopes his new business will help people who are in pain because of injuries. And to get the word out about his new mobile X-ray lab, he and his wife are targeting other chiropractors as well as personal-injury attorneys. The couple planned to take their lab to Bozeman today where they will hold an open house after presenting a seminar to the Montana Trial Lawyers Association.
The moving X-rays can be viewed using a regular VCR and include not only an X-ray film of the spine in motion, but a simultaneous film of the person being x-rayed in a small box in the corner of the screen. Such a video provides ideal evidence in a personal-injury trial by assuring that the X-ray being shown belongs to the alleged victim.
Roberts said he hopes eventually to provide motion x-ray service to orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons, but acknowledged that it might take time to win over doctors who have not seen the new technology in action. He cited a Missoula neurologist, Dr. Carter Beck, who, upon viewing DMX image of one of his patients, excitedly called one of his colleagues in to look at the film.
“Based on the digital X-ray, Dr. Beck was able to report that his patient had hyper mobility due to the accident,” Roberts said. “Without our digital X-ray he probably would not have seen it.”
Digital motion X-rays were invented in 1989 by the founder of the company that still manufactures the mobile labs, Roberts said, but the machines have been upgraded tremendously since then. In 1995, the company began producing them in larger numbers, and today more than 200 of the machines exist in the U.S.
Roberts said a Billings chiropractor was the first to bring a DMX machine to Montana, but after several years of providing motion X-rays in the state he retired from his practice and took the machine to Arizona where it is in high demand.
Teresa Roberts currently handles the marketing for the fledgling mobile X-ray business after working behind the scenes at her husband’s office for the last eight years. Now that the couple’s two daughters, ages seven and four, are in school, Teresa said she is excited to be involved in a business that has the potential to benefit the community.
“This community has been so good to us,” she said. “We’re just happy to be able to bring something state-of-the-art to Hamilton.” We want to give something back to the valley by having a business that employs people.”
Currently they have two employees working for them, she said, and intend to hire more as the business grows.
“We’ve already had a lot of local support from chiropractors and attorneys,” she said, “and we never could have done this without the help of our banker, Duane Ogden. He took one look at our proposal and recognized immediately what this means to our community.”
But Teresa Roberts wants to make sure that her husband’s clients know that he’s not abandoning his chiropractic practice in favor of their new business. He’s just as committed as ever to bringing people relief from pain, she said, and with their new Digital Motion X-ray machine, he’s even better equipped to serve his patients.
“We still have our office,” she said, “and we’re open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It’s just on Tuesdays and Saturdays that Gil takes the mobile lab out.”