|
Tuesday, March 02 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
With the plethora of clinical data emerging at this month’s American College of Cardiology annual meeting, the sessions are seeking to provide clinicians and administrators with methods to improve the quality of evidence-based care.
Tuesday, March 02 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
Whether CD and DVD burners serve a small, single-center provider, or a large, multi-site healthcare system, the technology helps manage patient images and ease the process of image transfer. The best systems work fast and smart—integrating well with PACS and enabling remote burning and disk labeling.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Written by Michael Bassett
While the technology behind cardiac advanced visualization (AV) can create some amazing images, it provides much more than just a “wow” factor. Radiologists and cardiologists rely on it to help them increase productivity and workflow and reduce costs, diagnose more quickly and accurately, and better communicate results with referring physicians and their patients.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
As the economy has soured and facilities investigate new ways to cut costs, many have turned to outsourcing their radiology needs via remote reading services. Able to provide expert remote reads and reports, teleradiology can cut the costs linked to staffing in-house radiologists during overnight, weekend or off-hours when patient volume is often slim. Yet, cost efficiency should never trump quality of patient care, and newer services do not require that trade-off.
Tuesday, January 05 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
 Cardiac MRI has distinguished itself as a tool for diagnosing heart disease, namely in examining the size and thickness of heart chambers, viewing the extent of damage from progressive heart disease, detecting plaque buildup and assessing a patient’s recovery following treatment.
Wednesday, December 09 2009
Written by C.P. Kaiser
 It was hard to miss the loud rumbles in November. In a reversal of its 2002 recommendations, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued new guidelines last month recommending against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years and advocating screening only every two years for women aged 50 to 74 years. The uproar reverberated across the nation and shook up the nation’s Capitol, as well.
Wednesday, December 09 2009
Written by Jeff Byers
 The demand for image post-processing by advanced visualization technology continues to grow across the healthcare enterprise. Maximum intensity projection (MIP), multiplanar reformation (MPR), and 3D modeling tools are in demand by radiologists, cardiologists, neurologists and surgeons specializing in oncologic, orthopedic, vascular, neuro and cardiac interventions.
Monday, November 09 2009
 As computer-aided detection (CAD) technologies focused on the lungs gain wider acceptance, clinicians are beginning to pinpoint those patient populations and disease states in which CAD is most effective through clinical trials, and where the technology could have future potential.
Monday, November 09 2009
 The advent of digital diagnostic imaging modalities and PACS products compelled IT departments to scale up archive space to meet the increased storage needs of their users. The recent deployment of data-intensive, multidetector CT systems, high field-strength MRI devices, and advanced visualization software applications for interpreting images has only exacerbated the demand for increased archive volume and for the protection of this vital clinical information.
Friday, October 09 2009
Written by Donna Domino
 In the wake of an explosion of oncology-related imaging, many hospitals have now set up separate radiation oncology information systems that not only store images but also keep track of dosage, planning and treatment data.
|
Tuesday, March 02 2010
Written by Mike Bassett
As the U.S. population gets increasingly older (the number of Americans over 65 is expected to increase a little more than 12 percent now to almost 20 percent by 2030), the demands on the nation’s health system—particularly in the area of cardiology—will continue to multiply.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
When the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) hosts its annual conference from March 1-4, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, it is sure to be abuzz with conversations about the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment, the HITECH Act, and the subsequent meaningful use proposals and definitions.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
While perfecting the ergonomics of the radiology reading room has long been a topic of research and debate—and a continuing work in progress—versatility and flexibility are the key components to ensuring comfort and thus better productivity for radiologists with different wants and needs.
Tuesday, January 05 2010
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
 RIS/PACS solutions have alleviated the concerns of misplacing patient records and lags in turnaround times for radiology departments and imaging centers, allowing for the rapid retrieval of patient images and reports from remote locations.
Tuesday, January 05 2010
Written by Jeff Byers
 The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) slashed reimbursement for diagnostic imaging centers by placing a cap on technical-component payments from Medicare for non-hospital imaging services beginning in January 2007.
Wednesday, December 09 2009
Written by Michael Bassett
 When computer-aided detection (CAD) technology for mammography first came to market, some radiologists had an almost visceral reaction against the software. Their concern was that these applications would supplant their role as diagnostician. However, as CAD achieved greater market penetration, many radiologists realized that the technology was not a threat but a powerful tool to aid their practice.
Monday, November 09 2009
 Although the conversion to digital mammography appears to be progressing at a rapid rate, a hair more than half of all accredited imaging centers have yet to break free of film-screen technology. As facilities contemplate making the move to digital breast imaging, proper workflow planning can ease the transition.
Monday, November 09 2009
Written by C.P. Kaiser
 A few years ago, there was a move in medical imaging to use off-the-shelf consumer-grade displays, especially for those clinicians in a web-based and remote reading environment. These displays were inexpensive and widely available. Lately, though, there’s been a shift away from these commodity displays.
Monday, November 09 2009
 Great controversy abounds over the role of the cardiac radiologist, and whether this position—if a facility even has a dedicated physician in this role—should be filled by a cardiologist or a radiologist.
Friday, October 09 2009
Written by Michael Bassett
 Depending on practice requirements, a smaller DICOM CD/DVD recording system may deliver the most efficient workflow
|
The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.