November is radiology's month. As radiologists and allied professionals around the world gear up for RSNA, were anticipating a great show. The RSNA 2010 theme—Personalized Medicine—speaks volumes about where radiology is headed. As personalized medicine inches into clinical practice, imaging will take center stage.

According to research presented during the 21st annual scientific sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) in San Diego this week, cardiac troponin plasma concentrations and longitudinal strain can predict the development of cardiotoxicity in patients treated with anthracyclines and trastuzumab chemotherapies.

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) has issued a consensus statement, supporting the use of contrast agents used to enhance echocardiogram images, and providing a guide for physicians who may be hesitant to use the contrast agents following a 2007 FDA black-box warning. The statement was published in the November issue of Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography.

Two-year data from the SPIRIT III trial, Abbott’s U.S. pivotal trial,demonstrated that its Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent systemcontinues to deliver clinically superior benefits compared to BostonScientific’s Taxus paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, accordingto a presentation at a late-breaking clinical trials session at EuroPCR2008 in Barcelona, Spain.

ORLANDO—One of William Shakespeare’s most oft-cited lines from the playRomeo and Juliet, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by anyother name would smell as sweet,” is a beautiful romantic simile;however, multiple names for the same object in healthcare arebedeviling to IT systems.

The FDA this week made a move that should help efforts to expand availability of electronic health records in this county over the coming decade by adopting the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) as the standard computerized medical vocabulary for the system.