2010 June

Cooper University Hospital has quietly redefined the hospital IT business model. Toward the end of 2009, the Camden, N.J.based academic medical center chose a new model that pairs VMware vSphere server virtualization with a robust McKesson cardiovascular information system (CVIS) architecture as well as a solid partnership with both vendors to deliver profound clinical and IT benefits.

Nuclear medicine practitioners just havent been able to catch a break. First, Canadas National Research University Reactor at Chalk River in Ontario shuts down for repairs, followed by the High Flux Reactor in Petten, the Netherlands. Then just as the Maria Research Reactor in Poland began to produce medical isotopes in March, that supply was interrupted in April by an act of naturethe eruption of the Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland that grounded air transatlantic and intra-European travel for a week.

Practice reporting has had a tumultuous history. Specifically in the U.S., mammography reporting has suffered from a lack of uniformity and standardization, which changed with the implementation of the American College of Radiologys (ACR) Breast Imaging and Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS).  While limitations still remain for breast imaging, emerging technologies and software applications are finessing the mammography reporting technique, and paving the way for further homogeny and an overall improved patient experience.