The roles and responsibilities of an operator are as follows:
An MEG operator is responsible for ensuring that the rules of the MEG scan suite are adhered to by all present in the MEG scan suite during an experiment.
An MEG operator runs a specific acquisition procedure that is agreed at the project's protocol feasibility scan. This includes:
Putting the participant into the scanner.
Running MEG software for data acquisition.
Communicating with the participant.
Helping the participant out of the MSR at the end of the acquisition.
Cleaning the MSR, and returning the scan suite to its default state.
Informing the investigator of any problems with software/hardware.
Troubleshooting basic faults holding up the experiment.
Reporting unresolved faults to reception, and requesting that reception contact a member of YNiC staff.
Operating the scan includes all the pre-scan set up procedures necessary for the specific study. This includes:
Making sure that MEG is set up according to the requirements supplied in the study's Experimental Setup sheet.
Checking that the appropriate trigger setup is in place, and that the trigger line is zeroed by running the “ParallelPortRest” program.
Checking that the stimuli (i.e. auditory / visual / somatosentory) are correctly set up for a specific study.
Setting up the magnetically-shielded room (MSR) for data acquisition.
Ensuring that the participant has completely de-metalled before they enter the MSR.
Informing the investigator of any problems with software/hardware.
Troubleshooting basic faults holding up the set up of the experiment.
Reporting unresolved faults to reception, and requesting that reception contact a member of YNiC staff.
An MEG operator has ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the participant has completed and understood the Full YNiC Consent Forms. These must always be completed and signed off by the Operator.
An MEG operator is responsible for logging every scan they record on the MEG scanner, and also logging any error that may occur.
An MEG operator is not responsible for running the experimental stimuli.
An MEG operator is not responsible for fixing all possible faults in the MEG scan suite. However, if there is a fault that they cannot fix, they must report it to reception, and request for a member of YNiC staff to attend the fault.
An MEG operator is responsible for making sure that investigators leave MEG at the end of their session and do not over-run into time allocated to other people. This may involve not starting the last run of an investigators study if it will cause the session to over-run.
N.B. You should inform investigators that should their study overrun due to the investigator being un-prepared, then the investigator will be penalized. The amount of time that the investigator overruns by will be rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes, doubled, and then subtracted from their REC alloted MEG time allowance. And if there is a subsequent study that has been inconvenienced, an equivalent amount will additionally be taken from the overrunning groups REC alloted MEG time, and added to the subsequent studies REC alloted MEG time allowance. Thus effectively fining the transgressing study quadruply for their overrun.
One MEG operator each day will perform a Daily Quality Assurance test (DQA). If you are the first operator of the day you will be expected to do a DQA before the MEG booking. You are advised to check the bookings calendar after noon on the day preceding your scan to see if you will be the first operator of the following day. If you are the first operator of the day, you are advised to arrive 30 minutes early, so that you may do the DQA and also have time to prepare for the scan. Once you have done the DQA, you will need to report this to reception, and ask them to retrospectively record this in the database.