YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - It's the only machine of its kind between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.  And what makes the new CT scanner unique is the fact it can go just about anywhere.

"Prior to this we would actually transport the patient from ICU to radiology and that is very scary to the families," said St. Elizabeth's trauma and neurology program director Daneen Mace-Vadjunec.

Not to mention, it is also very dangerous.  With the new portable CT machine,doctors can diagnose the hospital's most critical patients without having to wheel them around the hospital, a move that's known to jeopardize a patient's condition.

"The benefit is two fold.  We can actually use it in the operating room while we are doing surgery and we can move the machine from place to place to either get cat scans on patients in the intensive care unit or in the emergency room," said HMHP neurosurgeon Dr. Kene Ugokwe.

While most CT scanners capture images of just about any part of the body, the portable CT machine only scans heads.  Dr. Ugokwe says the images produced by the machine are just as accurate as stationary CT scanners.

"The technology is so good now they are able to get us very clear, good quality, crisp pictures of a CT scan of the head," said Dr. Ugokwe.

The portable CT machine is equipped with lead panels, which will decrease the radiation exposure to not only patients, but to the entire intensive care staff.