This paper describes the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque’s use of a computational tomography scanner, allowing the office to relieve the workload of forensic pathologists and prioritize which bodies require full autopsies.
Bodies from across New Mexico come into the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) in Albuquerque daily. OMI pathologists examined about 4,500 bodies in 2022 and 4,500 the year before, which included those who were victims of homicide, died of a drug overdose, committed suicide, died of natural causes, and those who died in accidents. Those numbers would overwhelm many of the 2,000 medical examiner and coroner offices in the United States as they struggle with chronic funding issues, staff shortages, and outdated equipment. The acute national shortage of forensic pathologists who conduct autopsies and cause-of-death investigations makes the problem worse. The United States has only about 750 practicing forensic pathologists, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. In 2021, they were confronted with almost 21,000 homicides, nearly 100,000 drug-related deaths, and 225,000 people who died in traffic accidents, falls, unintentional poisonings, and other mishaps. Another 48,000 died from suicide. OMI has developed an autopsy and postmortem examination system that is more in-depth, and yet more efficient, than most other medical examiner offices. Kurt Nolte, OMI’s former chief medical examiner, had the initial idea to augment autopsies with imaging and received a National Institute of Justice grant in 2010 to fund forensic imaging research.