Facility Management

Cosmetic medicine is bringing a fresh face to interventional radiology with new minimally invasive applications and opportunities to profit from this highly lucrative field.

Historically, the federal government has taken the lead in pursuing fraud claims against healthcare providers. Section 6031 of the recently enacted Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA), which provides a financial incentive for states to enact their own false claims legislation, is changing that.

iCAD pairs with Agfa for mammography systemSonoSite extends availability of algorithmAurora offers breast MR insurance supportContextVision lands OEM contractsAmicas picks up major IT contract

A suite of teleradiology products and services launched at the SIIM meeting will improve efficiency by intelligently routing studies, according to its developer, CoActiv Medical. The suite, called Exam-Net, focuses on image distribution, reading, and archiving. Its Acquire & Forward Server receives studies directly from multiple modalities or an existing PACS, automatically sending them for temporary storage to a hosted Exam-Net server at one of CoActiv's data centers, or to an onsite imaging location. The hosted server can be programmed for "intelligent" imaging forwarding, automatically routing studies to appropriate radiologists at any location.

Siemens Medical Solutions put its syngo Suite in the spotlight at SIIM 2007 as the means to an advanced level of interoperability and flexibility for imaging centers. The product, a hybrid IT that integrates RIS, PACS, postprocessing, and patient data handling, brings image management and practice management together in an easy-to-use package.

Last year, the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine attracted 24 essays from residents and other trainees vying to win travel reimbursement to the meeting. This year, the society received no essays, according to Dr. Barton F. Branstetter IV, chair of the SIIM education committee, who moderated a morning resident roundtable session.

The elderly patient was a major donor to the hospital. Intraoperative ultrasound revealed an unexpected liver lesion. Color Doppler showed vascularity. If the lesion was a cancerous tumor, the entire liver would need to be removed, the surgeon told radiologist Dr. Stephen Horii. Only histology would reveal actual pathology.

PET/CT continues to find new applications in detection and monitoring of breast, cervical, and ovarian carcinoma. An estimated 211,000 new cases of invasive breast carcinoma, with almost 41,000 deaths, are expected to occur in the U.S. during 2007. Breast carcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women and ranks second in terms of cancer deaths after lung cancer.

The trade-off between image noise and radiation exposure in low-dose multislice CT for kidney stone detection has not been kind to overweight patients. They are often excluded from low-dose studies, scanned at higher doses, or scanned repeatedly with normal doses.

Diffusion-weighted MR of the bone may indicate within days whether and how well patients with metastatic cancer of the bone are responding to treatment. The software to support such conclusions is now being developed for commercial release later this year by Cedara Software.

In a major departure for radiology, national and local programs have begun to address cancer risk from medical imaging radiation dose by monitoring medical patients' cumulative dose exposure.

Vendors are pouring money into R&D aimed at reducing radiation dose to patients when a simpler, more immediate answer might be at hand: positioning patients correctly before scanning.

Philips allies with EM navigation firmU.S. Senate considers DRA freezeFonar financial picture brightensAgfa guarantee eases digital transition

Although many radiologists have resisted structured reporting, it offers numerous benefits ranging from better communication with referring physicians and faster report turnaround to data mining capabilities and integration with speech recognition, according to a recent paper.

A bipartisan bill calling for a two-year freeze on imaging payment rate reductions included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was introduced in the U.S. Senate May 8. The legislation comes on the heels of a similar bill introduced by the House in February.

Fewer than one quarter of U.S. outpatient imaging centers surveyed by the marketing research firm IMV plan to purchase any type of high-end diagnostic imaging equipment between now and 2008, a draconian measure prompted by the implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA).

Radiologists’ desire to sleep at night and avoid call is more likely to drive demand for after-hours teleradiology services than is a need for extra personnel, according to a small survey of imaging department heads presented at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting on Tuesday.meeting on Tuesday.

FDA clears Hansen EP robotic systemToshiba nabs ultrasound contractFinal data clock in for 64-slice CT trial

College-based urgent care physicians and community-based emergency room physicians do not feel compelled to consult with radiologists about patients with abdominal pain, according to results of an e-mail survey presented at the Association of University Radiologists meeting in April.

Investors shun maker of ultrasound agentAlliance Imaging reports reduced revenues Amicas narrows operating lossSonoSite 1Q revenues rise 16%

In late November, nearly 300 doctors and imaging center managers paid $325 each for a day-long seminar sponsored by the law firm McDermott Will & Emery. They packed a large ballroom in the swank Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Water Tower Place in Chicago to learn how to turn referrals to imaging facilities into lucrative income streams.

Striking the right balance between quality and throughput is never easy, especially when the queue of referrals seems never to end. Shorter scan times mean that another patient or two could be squeezed onto the day's work list.

Multislice CT has steamed into our radiology departments like a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. In its wake, an entire support industry has sprung up to help us quench our ever-increasing thirst for more and better slices.

The Elizabeth Wende Breast Clinic in Rochester, NY, has used computer-aided detection for seven years. While CAD's value in the screen-film arena is well documented, its implementation can be challenging, and further research still needs to be performed in the digital world.

The trade-off between image noise and radiation exposure in low-dose multislice CT for kidney stone detection has not been kind to overweight patients.

Computer-aided diagnosis has become a part of routine clinical work for detection of breast cancer on mammograms.1-7 It is beginning to be applied in the detection and differential diagnosis of many different kinds of abnormalities in medical images obtained with various modalities.

There is no doubt in any imaging center operator's mind that today's myriad new imaging technologies are changing the way in which they do business. In many instances, these new technologies also drive the future success of the operation.

Advances in coil technology and the development of tailored sequences have made 3T a versatile alternative to 1.5T. But it will be a long time until it displaces 1.5T as the workhorse of MR.

The patient arrived at the outpatient clinic early for her follow-up. The indication for the laser ablation procedure she had undergone to treat varicose veins in her legs had been primarily clinical.

Nuclear medicine applications have boomed since PET studies secured reimbursement, and the use of hybrid modalities combining nuclear imaging with multislice CT scanning is growing. The potential for increasing radiation exposure for patients and medical workers requires beefing up radiation safety measures, according to two leading nuclear medicine experts who spoke at the 2007 National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements meeting.