One of the more interesting studies that came out of the 2009 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) was one that found that radiologists should be able to accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location with the use of a handheld or mobile phone (in this case an iPhone) equipped with OsiriX mobile software.

The news that a man tried to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day by igniting chemicals hidden in his underwear has officials across the globe rethinking the issue of airline security. One of the major considerations under discussion for improvements is the use of full body scanners.

The issue of medical imaging and radiation exposure continues to dominate headlines, as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (as well as other hospitals in California and Alabama) are dealing with the problem that hundreds of their patients received excessive amounts of radiation while undergoing CT brain perfusion scans. And this week  the Archives of Internal Medicine published a pair of studies suggesting that CT scans may pose more of a cancer risk for patients than was originally thought.

It is apparently more politically expedient to hamstring an entire branch of medicine than it is to close a single legislative loophole. The issue, of course, is the explosion in growth of diagnostic imaging services over the past 15 years.

The pace of research in functional imaging moves at a fast clip, with breakthroughs at the laboratory bench promising new treatments in the clinical setting. Getting from point A to point B, however, is rarely a seamless transition.

Take the biomarker 11C-choline, for example. The compound has successfully been applied for PET imaging of prostate cancer, bladder cancer and other solid malignancies. Although the radiotracer has shown strength for cancer detection, its observed sensitivity has shown great variance.

An ongoing series of unfortunate events broke down existing radiation dose safety protocols in the CT perfusion unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Although the investigation into the cause of the cascade of failure is ongoing, some data has emerged.

Over an 18-month period, 206 CT brain perfusion patients at the facility received radiation doses that were approximately eight times higher than the expected level. Hospital officials said there was a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the CT system that resulted in a higher than expected amount of radiation.

Could IT have alerted personnel to the problem sooner? Without a thorough analysis of the entire system at the facility, the answer is a firm “maybe.” However, PACS professionals may want to seriously consider implementing the capabilities of the DICOM Dose Structured Report (SR) object in their practice to help mitigate events such as these.

The World Molecular Imaging Congress opened this week in Montreal with a slew of scientific sessions that promised to scintillate all but the most jaded of clinical and investigative research palettes.

Representatives from Academy of Molecular Imaging, the Society for Molecular Imaging, the European Society for Molecular Imaging and the Federation of Asian Societies for Molecular Imaging worked together to develop a scientific program that integrates developments in imaging technologies and molecular imaging agents with applications for drug development, basic science investigations and clinical translation.

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, keynote speaker Roger Y. Tsien, PhD, spoke with journalists about his current research on enzymatically amplified targeting that can deliver both optical and MR contrast agents.

The announcement from the American College of Radiology (ACR) that it has convened a committee to develop a standardized lexicon for CT and MRI surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) comes as welcome news to structured reporting advocates.

The Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) is a new method of categorization of liver findings in patients with end-stage liver disease. LI-RADS categories will allow radiologists to stratify lesions according to the level of concern for HCC and suggest strategies for follow up and management.

Alzheimer’s disease affects an estimated 5.3 million people in the U.S. and is the country’s seventh leading cause of death. The reality of caring for a spouse, parent or grandparent afflicted with the disease is overwhelming; entailing far more than handling the forgetfulness and confusion depicted in the lay media.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, treatments for symptoms can improve the quality of life for patients. As with any disease, early detection leads to more effective treatment.

PET imaging is seen as one of the promising tools that clinicians can utilize in their battle against Alzheimer’s. A pair of recent studies showcased the capabilities of this molecular imaging modality as part of the diagnostic armamentarium.

There’s a two-pronged reality with which every medical imaging administrator must deal on a daily basis: declining procedure reimbursement coupled with an ever-growing volume of diagnostic imaging procedures.

Getting paid less for doing more is not an outcome that most reasonable people would select. However, with the intelligent utilization of health imaging IT systems—such as RIS/PACS—a practice can mitigate reimbursement challenges on the horizon.