In the chaotic rush of 21st century radiology, it is all too easy to forget the basics and sweat about the hard stuff—interoperability, meaningful use and ROI. Two recent studies remind us that simple, direct solutions work well in the difficult pay-for-performance arena and help beleaguered departments deliver improved quality.

Integration is a tricky business. Even the best in the business admit (privately) that their solutions are less than ideal. Yet, as this month’s cover story reminds us, integration and interoperability have become business essentials. Facilities that can’t connect disparate IT systems internally and externally are likely to lose profits, patients and physicians. Facilities that do make meaningful, seamless and rich connections, on the other hand, will thrive by meeting the needs of patients and providers.

Last month, cardiac CT experts from around the globe gathered at SCCT2010 in Las Vegas to exchange ideas and information about clinical advances in CCTA. The compelling clinical data shared at the meeting complemented promising research about the economics of advanced visualization in the cardiac arena.

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” quipped Mark Twain after learning that his obituary had been published in a British newspaper. While the commoditization of the RIS/PACS market does not spell death, it does spell change.

The original silver bullet was endowed with mythical powers and provided the only means of slaying werewolves, witches and monsters. Today, healthcare is haunted by demons of a different ilk; spiraling costs and mediocre patient care are fodder for nightmares for physicians, policymakers and patients alike.

The three most commonly diagnosed types of cancer among women in 2010 will be cancers of the breast, lung and bronchus and colorectal, all of which account for 52 percent of estimated cancer cases in women, according to the American Cancer Society. However, breast cancer alone is expected to account for 28 percent of all new cancer cases among women. Screening and detection of early recurrence of breast cancer will be the key to survival among women.

Conventional wisdom tells us it can take a decade or longer for medical advances to translate into routine clinical practice. The bench-to-bedside transition is a multi-step process that begins with clinical evidence. The imaging community has not yet fully embraced additional parts of the process, such as data-driven training and comprehensive communication.

Imaging informatics seems to face a series of impossible demands. Clinicians want rich PACS/EMR integration with one-click image access in the EMR; administrators demand real-time, customized dashboards; and dollars and staff are in short supply. Nevertheless, smart players in the image management world are finding ways to leverage technology and people to devise real solutions.

Clinical studies have proven that screening for certain cancers and heart disease saves lives. But questions linger. Will those screened derive any mortality benefit? If so, how great is it? What is the cost relative to gains, relative to treatment costs? This month we’re drilling down into CT screening, for lung cancer, colorectal cancer and coronary artery disease. There are still more questions than answers, but studies are underway.

“…who will pay the law for the use of its brains and its time." The prolific 19th Century British author and playwright Wilkie Collins encapsulates how most of the public, plebian-like non-lawyers, often feel about convoluted courtroom battles. For example, the lawsuits are beginning to stack up against the federal government with regards to healthcare reform legislation, signed into law on March 23 from numerous states on the grounds of the Commerce Clause.

The confidence to use CT colonography (CTC) as a screening tool has gained a great deal of momentum over the passed few months, bolstered by mounting clinical evidence and, most recently, congressional action.

With the increasing accessibility of virtual colonoscopies, there has been an ongoing question whether it might decrease the use of optical colonoscopies for colorectal cancer screenings.

Americans tend to very protective of their privacy—particularly when it comes to their health.

Sometimes it appears that CT colonography just can’t avoid the spotlight.

In what was expected to be a straightforward two-day public hearing called by the FDA to discuss medical radiation, the issue of CT colonography succeeded in creating some controversy in the mainstream press.

One of the arguments that President Obama has made in favor of healthcare reform is that the same kind of insurance system available to him and members of Congress should be available to all Americans.

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.

Did the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) make a mistake last year when it decided it would not reimburse for CT colonography (CTC)?

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 use of hybrid imaging systems will clearly improve the accuracy of molecular imaging approaches—however, the imaging community will need to overcome several hurdles in translating the evolving targeted imaging probes, technologies and applications into clinical care.

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.