Economics

This channel highlights factors that impact hospital and healthcare economics and revenue. This includes news on healthcare policies, reimbursement, marketing, business plans, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain, salaries, staffing, and the implementation of a cost-effective environment for patients and providers.

Medicare alternative payment models fee for service value based care

Unavoidability of ‘one-off’ imaging forces radiology to keep one foot in fee-for-service world

Radiology can participate only sporadically in CMS’s current conception of value-based care. Why?

September 1, 2023
money business cash flow dollar. Kingsway Financial Services, a Chicago-based holding company with subsidiaries in several industries, has acquired New Jersey-based Digital Diagnostics Imaging (DDI) for $11 million. The transaction was funded with $5.4 million in cash and $5.6 million in debt financing.

Dense breast imaging specialists secure $12M in funding

Delphinus Medical Technologies says it will use the investment to expand the commercial adoption of its SoftVue 3D Whole Breast Tomography System.

August 23, 2023
contrast shortage

Rethinking ICM storage could help imaging departments reduce waste by 59%

“While drug pricing is not opaque and absolute costs of medications can vary widely, any waste comes at a cost," researchers wrote in a new analysis. 

August 9, 2023
Stephen Little, MD, discusses trends in echocardiography at ASE 2023. #ASE23 #ASE2023 What is new in cardiac ultrasound.

Back in the spotlight: Exploring echocardiography's revival

American Society of Echocardiography President Stephen Little, MD, says several trends and technologies are coming together at once, leading to renewed interest in echo.

July 10, 2023
dipyridamole injection drug shortage heart imaging Canada

‘I have no dose for anyone right now’: Drug shortage hits cardiologists in Canada, leading to delays

“It's very important,” one cardiologist said. “This is a life-saving test and it's very frustrating that we can't access the medication.”

July 10, 2023
Syringeless contrast media injectors like the GE Ulrich CT Motion gained a lot of interest in 2022 because of the iodinated contrast shortage. These systems use rollers to squeeze precise amounts of contrast from a large bolus container for multiple patients, helping conserve a significant amount of contrast.

Multi-use syringeless injectors could completely eliminate contrast waste

Such products could increase departmental efficiency and advance environmental initiatives in radiology, experts claimed in Academic Radiology.

June 26, 2023
Two examples of PSMA-PET scans showing numerous prostate cancer metastases spread throughout the body. Many of these smaller tumors would not have been detected on previous standard-of-care imaging. Photo on left courtesy of SNMMI, right University of Chicago. #PSMAPET

PSMA-PET a more cost-effective option for patients long-term compared to standard prostate imaging

The findings support adopting F-18 DCFPyL PET/CT as the standard of care for prostate cancer staging, authors of a new Scientific Reports paper concluded.

May 25, 2023
CT contrast injector data screen in a control room with the CT scanner in the background, at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital.

Is warming iodinated contrast prior to use really necessary?

The ACR Manual on Contrast Media suggests that highly viscous ICM should be warmed to body temperature prior to administration when using high-rate intravenous low-osmolality power injections, viscous iodinated CM, small-caliber catheters, or for timed studies looking at peak enhancement.   

May 18, 2023

Around the web

The FDA-approved technology developed by HeartFlow can predict a patient's long-term risk of target vessel failure as well as more invasive treatments performed inside a cath lab. 

Using CT to perform coronary artery calcium scoring on symptomatic chest pain patients can deliver significant value, according to a new data published in Radiology

Kate Hanneman, MD, explains why many vendors and hospitals want to lower radiology's impact on the environment. "Taking steps to reduce the carbon footprint in healthcare isn’t just an opportunity," she said. "It’s also a responsibility."

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