This is one in a series of profiles on the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists. The awards, presented by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, recognize outstanding federal employees whose important, behind-the-scenes work is advancing the health, safety and well-being of Americans and are among the most prestigious honors given to civil servants. This profile features a finalist for the Science and Environment medal Kyle Myers, director of research in imaging and applied mathematics at the Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Md.

Medical devices such as magnetic resonance imaging technology, ultrasound machines and CT scans are used to create images of the human body for medical procedures and to diagnose a wide range of ailments from cancer and heart problems to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
The reliability of the information gleaned from these devices depends on a number of factors-the quality of the images, the diagnostic methods used to assess those images and the skill of the radiologists who interpret the information. Keep reading →