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Monday, February 08 2010
A final guidance on Bayesian statistical methods used in the design and analysis of medical device clinical trials was issued Feb. 5 by the FDA.
Friday, February 05 2010
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a panel Thursday to identify ways to increase the use and quality of colorectal cancer screening in the U.S.
Thursday, February 04 2010
Boston Scientific has settled three patent disputes with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for $1.73 billion.
Wednesday, February 03 2010
IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, a provider of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Previous studies suggest that for patients with a suspected blood clot in a deep vein of a leg, withholding anticoagulation therapy after a negative whole-leg compression ultrasound is associated with a low risk of developing a blood clot during the subsequent three months, suggesting that multiple ultrasounds may not be necessary for low-risk patients, according to a report in the Feb. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
For ruling out coronary artery disease (CAD), multidetector CT (16-slice or more) is more accurate than MRI, according to a retrospective study in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine.
Thursday, January 28 2010
Twenty-two percent of healthcare employers said they plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees in 2010, up from 17 percent who said the same last year, according to a survey from Chicago-based online recruitment Web site CareerBuilder.
Wednesday, January 27 2010
MR angiography (MRA), with the addition of a specially designed computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme, has proven to have greater accuracy than MRA alone, and may have the ability to improve the sensitivity of intracranial aneurysm detection on MR images, according to the findings of a collaborative project of Mayo Clinic and IBM.
Tuesday, January 26 2010
Hospitals rated in the top 5 percent in the U.S. have a 29 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate and are improving their clinical quality at a faster pace than other hospitals, according to a study issued Jan. 26 by HealthGrades, a healthcare ratings organization.
Sunday, January 24 2010
Handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants and Apple's iPod Touch are prevalent among doctors, and these devices may be particularly useful for emergency radiologists, who in the near future, may be able to use them for teleconsultation and emergency procedures, according to a study in the February issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
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Friday, February 05 2010
It is impossible to imagine a high-performing U.S. health system that does not take full advantage of the computing technology that has transformed virtually every other aspect of human endeavor, wrote National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal, MD, in a commentary published Feb. 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Thursday, February 04 2010
Medical transcription company MedQuist has entered into a “stalking horse” purchase agreement with clinical documentation company Spheris for its domestic business. The agreement must be approved by the courts, as the Franklin, Tenn.-based Spheris recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Wednesday, February 03 2010
The FDA is requesting $4.03 billion, an increase of 23 percent over the agency’s current $3.28 billion budget, as part of President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a contract bid to create a panel to identify and explore the negative unintended consequences of activities supported by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT in coordination with other federal agencies, including activities related to meaningful use of certified EHR technology.
Tuesday, February 02 2010
Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group of the Netherlands has extended the preparatory phase of the new research reactor Pallas, and the final choice for the vendor will be made by the end of 2010.
Sunday, January 31 2010
A study and an accompanying editorial published in the January issue of Journal of Nuclear Medicine suggests that essential elements were missing from many oncologic PET reports and these deficiencies may render reports less helpful to referring physicians and also lead to misdiagnoses as well as cause coding and billing errors.
Thursday, January 28 2010
McKesson has reported that revenues for the 2010 third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, 2009, were $28.3 billion compared with $27.1 billion a year ago. The company also posted a net income of $326 million in this quarter, compared with a net loss of $20 million in the third quarter of 2009.
Tuesday, January 26 2010
Among Medicare patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer resection during the first 18 months of approved Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) coverage for FDG-PET imaging, there was a substantial growth in utilization of FDG-PET within two years of surgery and the highest rates of utilization occurred within six months of surgery, according to a study in the February issue of Radiology.
Monday, January 25 2010
While Royal Philips Electronics recorded a net income of €260 million ($367.7 million U.S.) in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with a net loss of €1.18 billion ($1.67 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2008, Philips Healthcare did not fare as well, especially in the U.S. market.
Thursday, January 21 2010
Medicaid programs in South Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky and Wisconsin will receive federal matching funds for state planning activities necessary to implement the EHR incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported Thursday.
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Using an advanced massive-training artificial neural network, computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme, radiologists were able to improve their polyp detection rate and reduce the number of false positives in CT colonography, based on a study presented at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference in Chicago.
Organizations should act prior to the implementation of the new (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) HIPAA compliance guideline changes for 2010 and consistently monitor their facilities in order to make an easier transition and avoid the extended penalties that are now being proposed, said HIPAA privacy and security consult Grant Peterson during a Jan. 13 Webinar on the guidelines.