Industry News

Chalk River reactor return delayed until late May
The Chalk River, Ontario-based National Research Universal (NRU) reactor restart has been delayed until the second half of May 2010.

U.S. Senate backs expanded physician eligibility for MU
The U.S. Senate has passed legislation to expand the number of eligible physicians who might receive incentive payments for the meaningful use of health IT under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

ACR endorses bill to 'safeguard' access to preventive services
The American College of Radiology (ACR) has endorsed the Safeguard Access to Preventative Services Act (H.R. 4794), which was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and three original co-sponsors on March 9.

JAMIA: More detailed EMR data may make comparisons difficult
The unprecedented level of detail in EMR clinical data opens new possibilities for defining clinical quality measures in more clinically meaningful ways. However, more detailed data can cause difficulties in ensuring that data across institutions are comparable, according to an article in the online March edition of the Journal of Medical Informatics Association.

JACR: Tools needed for primary care physicians to improve imaging decision requests
A high percentage of CT and MRI examinations are not meeting appropriateness criteria and subsequently yielding negative results, which suggests a need for tools to help primary care physicians hone their imaging decision requests, according to a recent article in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Conference News

HIMSS: Infinitt helps customers reach meaningful use with new image viewing solution
Infinitt North America showcased its new OEM product, Infinitt Accent, at HIMSS10 in Atlanta.

HIMSS: eClinicalWorks expands EMR deployment options
At HIMSS10 in Atlanta last week, eClinicalWorks announced on-demand deployment of its EMR management mobile system or any other add-on products.

HIMSS: athenahealth and Sermo announce partnership, Physician Sentiment Index
Health IT company athenahealth announced a partnership with online physician community Sermo at the 2010 HIMSS conference in Atlanta last week.

Clinical Studies

Radiology: CT angiography proves cost-effective in chest pain diagnosis strategy
A coronary CT angiography-only approach -- when factoring in a $20,000 threshold level for cost per correct diagnosis and $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year -- is the most cost-effective diagnostic strategy for the evaluation of patients presenting with stable chest pain without known coronary artery disease (CAD) with intermediate CAD prevalence, according to a decision analysis study published in the March issue of Radiology.

Mergers & Acquisitions

InterSystems acquires Italian health IT company
InterSystems has acquired Prosa, which is a part of Gruppo Sistem, an Italian healthcare technology company, for an undisclosed sum.

Contracts & Installations

Scottsdale surgery center selects Wolters Kluwer Health
Health IT company Wolters Kluwer Health announced that the Surgery Center of Scottsdale in Arizona has selected its ProVation MD software for gastroenterology procedure documentation and coding.

Radiotherapy treatment system from Varian chosen in UK
Medical software and device manufacturer Varian Medical Systems will supply Kent Oncology Centre in Southeast England with two Clinac iX accelerators with RapidArc capability for radiotherapy treatments.

MinXray announces several DR installs in Nigeria
Portable x-ray provider MinXray has announced the installation of seven portable x-ray/digital CR systems and equipment in seven different locations throughout Nigeria.

FujiFilm inks three-year contract with Tennessee purchasing group
Brentwood, Tenn.-based HealthTrust Purchasing Group, LP has inked a three-year contract with FujiFilm Medical Systems USA for its line of Fuji CR (FCR) products, effective April 2010 through March 2013.

Advanced Accelerator Applications invests $6 million for Annexin research
Advanced Accelerator Applications has invested approximately $6 million in Atreus Pharmaceuticals which will be used to expand Atreus’ research in molecular imaging based on Annexin V.

Canadian DR company lands fifth Florida install
Digital radiography (DR) marketer and provider Imaging Dynamics has expanded its contract with Orthopaedic Clinic of Daytona Beach with the installation of its 1600 Plus X-Series with X3C technology DR system, the fifth system to be installed within the Clinic.