U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Sept. 2 that Cincinnati and Detroit are the two final pilot communities selected under the new Beacon Community Program that is using health IT to help tackle leading health problems in communities across the U.S.

Cardiac MRI revealed cardiac adaptations, including a balanced increase in left ventricular and right ventricular myocardial mass, wall thickness, ventricular dilation and diastolic function, among  elite triathletes, according to a study published in the October edition of Radiology.

A series of studies published in the September issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine show that molecular imaging plays a critical role in the evaluation and treatment planning for a spectrum of cancers, including thyroid cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, Hodgkin lymphoma and non-small cell lung cancer.

The number of patient visits accommodated by the radiographic fluoroscopy (RF) departments increased at a rate of 3.5 percent per year between 2004 to 2009, while the total RF installed base declined at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per year over the past decade, according to a report issued by market research firm IMV Medical Information Division.

The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) has been recognized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) under the initial certification program created to certify that EHRs are capable of meeting the criteria to support meaningful use and qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The California State Legislature has approved a bill to save the state’s mammogram program--Every Woman Counts--with a vote of 34-0 from the Senate and 75-0 in the state assembly last week.

The California State Assembly in a bipartisan vote of 70-4 has approved SB 1237, which seeks to establish protocols and safeguards to protect patients from excess radiation exposure during CT scans by requiring radiation dosage levels be recorded on the scanned image and in a patient’s health records and that radiation overdoses be reported to patients, their treating physicians and the California Department of Public Health.

The repair of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, the Netherlands, is proceeding well and the reactor is expected to achieve the first HFR Full Power Day (45 MW) on Sept. 9, according to the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group of the Netherlands.

The FDA has alerted the public to problems associated with the quality of mammograms performed at the Medisound facility in Kissimmee, Fla

Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., has fired a licensed radiologic technologist (RT), who was a possible source of transmission of Hepatitis C infection to three transplant patients.

While Agfa-Gevaert posted 8.7 percent increase in revenues in the 2010 second quarter compared with the previous year’s second quarter, its Agfa HealthCare unit only posted slightly higher revenues—0.3 percent—over the 2009 second quarter.

With the advent of 64-slice CT, coronary CT angiography (CCTA) exams of low-risk patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain are feasible given the nearly 100 percent negative predictive value of the test, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) published in the Aug. 17 issue of Circulation.

The University of Kentucky in Lexington is notifying 2,027 people of a breach of protected health information.

The Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) has scheduled another extended outage for next spring, as part of the Chalk River Laboratories, National Research Universal (NRU) reactor's return to service activities.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT predicts 50,000 additional health IT workers will be needed during the next five years to satisfy EHR meaningful use criteria. Thus, providers, payors and other stakeholders need to fill in workforce gaps with skill sets from other staff and focus on alternative ways to install and operate systems that realize economies of scale and therefore reduce health IT staff demands, according to a study from IT company CSC.

Recently introduced breast imaging modalities, including breast-specific gamma imaging and positron emission mammography, are linked with higher cancer risk per study compared with the risks associated with mammography and extend cancer risk to radiosensitive organs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology.

Medtronic’s financial results for its first quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ended July 30, revealed a double-digit increase in net earnings, despite a slight drop in revenues.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing guidance for state Medicaid directors and agencies regarding the implementation of CMS’ final regulations to allow the payment of incentives to eligible professionals and hospitals to promote the adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology.

A healthcare provider that creates a best practices IT platform to house and share medical records, manage hospital resources more transparently and define precise guidelines for medically authorized tests and procedures can generate significant operating efficiencies, according to analysis published in McKinsey Quarterly.

The nuclear medicine community has been pressuring the U.S. government to develop improved domestic capability for producing these materials to reduce this dependence, said Robert Atcher, PhD, MBA, immediate past president of SNM and director of National Isotope Development Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory in White Rock, N.M., at an opening session of the 240th conference of the American Chemical Society, held this week in Boston.