Organization

Brigham And Women's Hospital


JACR: Professional guidelines not cut out for decision support

Top Stories | Tuesday, August 17 2010
Radiology professional society guidelines, in and of themselves, do not comprise effective decision support for reducing inappropriate use of medical imaging, opined Ramin Khorasani, MD, MPH, vice chair of radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
 

AIM: Honesty may be best policy for managing medical errors

Top Stories | Monday, August 16 2010
Establishing a program that mandates full disclosure and compensation to patients with regard to medical errors may potentially reduce malpractice claims, according to a retrospective analysis published in the Aug. 17 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
 

AAPM: Wide-area detector CCTA technology opens doors of possibility

Conference News | Thursday, July 22 2010
Written by Chris Kaiser
PHILADELPHIA—What began as single-slice CT scanning has now evolved into dynamic volume scanning, utilizing as many as 320 detectors. The possibilities for wide-area detector technology include consistently low radiation exposure for coronary CT angiography (CCTA), as well as myocardial perfusion imaging, kinetic opacification slopes that distinguish between normal and diseased arteries and vascular profiling, according to Frank Rybicki, MD, PhD, who spoke July 21 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).
 

Study: Bar-code EMAR can reduce medication errors

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, May 05 2010
Using bar-code technology with an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) substantially reduces transcription and medication administration errors and potential drug-related adverse events, according to a study published in the May 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
 

HealthAffairs: EHRs must evolve to integrate into medical home

Industry News | Monday, April 19 2010
More research is needed but the EHR will likely be a foundational element of the medical home, according to an article in the April edition of HealthAffairs.
 

AACR names new leadership for 2010

Industry News | Monday, April 19 2010
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) installed a new president, president-elect and treasurer during its 101st annual meeting this week in Washington, D.C.
 

AHRQ: Integration with workflow is key to CDS success

Industry News | Thursday, April 15 2010
Clinical decision support (CDS) systems can be successfully developed and implemented, and the knowledge base can be shared across clinical sites and EMR systems, according to a recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) report.
 

JACR: Financial incentives, new technology speed report turnover time

Top Stories | Monday, March 29 2010
Technological interventions, as well as financial incentives have been found to have the ability to result in synergistic and sustainable improvement in radiologist report-signing behavior and this cut-down on signature time can lead to improved patient care, said the results of a study published in the March edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
 

Study: 3D ultrasound can be used to map, study breast ductal systems

Portal Exclusives | Wednesday, January 06 2010
The use of 3D ultrasound is feasible for mapping and studying breast ductal systems, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine.
 

NEJM: Publicly reporting data doesn’t change readmission rates

Clinical Studies | Sunday, January 03 2010
Current efforts to collect and publicly report data on discharge planning are unlikely to yield large reductions in unnecessary readmissions, according to study authors in the Dec. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
 

Q/A: Rb-82 PET gaining importance in cardiac imaging

Portal Exclusives | Tuesday, December 22 2009
Rb-82 PET is gaining momentum in cardiac imaging with the technetium shortage continuing and an increase in reimbursements in the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System for PET myocardial perfusion imaging by the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS).
 

JACR: ED transfers result in unnecessary CT exams

Top Stories | Thursday, September 10 2009
A large percentage of emergency department (ED) transfer patients undergo unnecessary CT exams as a result of the move from one ED to another, according to a study in this month's Journal of the American College of Radiology.
 

JACR: Partners HealthCare establishes CT contrast administration policy

Industry News | Saturday, August 01 2009
Partners HealthCare System of Boston, which runs Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, has implemented a CT contrast media policy to help improve patient safety, according to an editorial in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
 

Rubidium demonstrates ammonia-tracer equivalence in blood-flow PET

Portal Exclusives | Thursday, July 30 2009
Although it would be nice to have, not every healthcare facility can afford (or house) a cyclotron. Quantification of myocardial blood flow and coronary flow reserve using PET and 13N-ammonia and 15O-water tracers delivers a very sensitive evaluation; however, the tracers have short half lives of 10 and 2 minutes, respectively, and require an on-site cyclotron for their production.
 

SNM disburses molecular imaging research grants

Industry News | Tuesday, July 07 2009
SNM (formerly the Society of Nuclear Medicine) has awarded approximately $245,000 in research grants through its Education and Research Foundation.
 

SIR issues new patient radiation safety guidelines

Industry News | Tuesday, July 07 2009
The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), which has previously published clinical practice guidelines on radiation dose management, has released a new document providing guidance on the safe use of fluoroscopy on pediatric and adult patients.
 

Cutting kVp delivers quality pulmonary CTA

Portal Exclusives | Thursday, June 11 2009
Lowering the peak kilovoltage setting for pulmonary CT angiography leads to superior vascular enhancement without a deterioration of image quality, according to the results of a retrospective study published in this month’s American Journal of Roentgenology.
 

Ultrasound treatment studied for neurological disorders

Clinical Studies | Monday, June 08 2009
Scientists at the Massachusetts Instutitue of Technology and other institutions have been experimenting with low-frequency, low-intensity ultrasound to provide a non-invasive alternative to techniques such as deep-brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation, used to treat a growing number of neurological disorders.
 

Automated coronary lumen geometry extraction speeds interpretation

Top Stories | Thursday, May 07 2009
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have developed a technique that allows fully automated 3D coronary lumen geometry extraction based on 320-detector row coronary CT angiography images. Frank J. Rybicki, MD, PhD, co-director of the cardiovascular imaging section at the facility, showcased the technique in a scientific presentation at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society, which took place last week in Boston.
 

ED physicians urged to consider imaging history when ordering CT

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, May 06 2009
Physicians should review a patient's CT imaging history in the emergency department (ED) and cumulative radiation dose when considering whether to perform another CT exam, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
 
Web Exclusives

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

Radiology: Rad role may evolve as image-guided biopsies trend up

CT, ultrasound and MRI have helped shift biopsy techniques away from more invasive approaches toward image-guided percutaneous techniques, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology. The trend toward less-invasive approaches translates into enhanced safety and efficiency and could lead to more interaction between patients and radiologists.

CMS Webinar: Incentive payments to offset EHR adoption, not reimburse

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive payments are not considered reimbursement for money expended on EHR technology, but are intended to offset the cost associated with adoption and ongoing meaningful use, according to CMS during an Aug. 12 webinar.

CMS webinar: Eligible professionals can expect EHR incentives in 2011

Funding incentives for EHR use is the main goal of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) meaningful use initiative, and there are incentive programs for both hospitals and eligible professionals, according to Elizabeth Holland, health insurance specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke during a CMS-sponsored webinar Aug. 8.

Webinar: Stage 1 of meaningful use is for quality reporting acclimation

Stage 1 requirements for meaningful use incentives aim to strike a balance between the overall goal of EHR use and widespread adoption, while avoiding added work, said Jonathan Teich, MD, PhD, chief medical informatics officer at Elsevier Health Services, during a HIMSS webinar titled “Meaningful Use: Safety and Quality of Care.”

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