Alessandra Simmons's Blog – February 2015 Archive (9)

A lot of people that aren’t in health care think that the Affordable Care Act was put in place to insure the uninsured, but its real goal is to lower the cost of health care from the government’s perspective, according to Brian Baker of Carealytics, in an interview with Diagnostic Imaging at AHRA 2014. The trend of growth in the population and the cost of…

Lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography may substantially reduce the false-positive result rate, but sensitivity is also decreased, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Source: UBM Partner Site Diagnostic Imaging - For…

On January 26, 2015 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced two ambitious goals that have a significant impact on radiology: One half of all Medicare payment to physicians and hospitals will be made through alternative payment models (ie, medical homes and accountable care organizations) by 2018 and 85% of all fee-for-service payments will be tied to…

Imagine that you have a referring physician complaining to the chair of the radiology department: they can’t get their patients in for an MR scan. He recommends that your department buy a new MR scanner. Your technologist says they’re really busy all day, which could also mean the department could benefit from a new MR scanner

Source: UBM…

CHICAGO — Thirty-one percent of radiologists in a 2013 study published in Radiology had at least one malpractice claim in their career. At RSNA 2014, Kelly Yousem, a 25-year veteran attorney doing plaintiff’s medical malpractice, educated radiologists about the medical malpractice process.

Source: UBM Partner Site Diagnostic Imaging - For full article, please click…

They did what?! Click to view 11 costly mistakes providers have made when dealing with confidential patient information. 

Source: UBM Partner Site Diagnostic Imaging - For full article, please click here.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Koning Breast CT (KBCT) and KBCT-guided biopsy bracket, Koning Corporation announced. KBCT is the first commercially available 3D breast scanner designed to image the entire breast with a single scan and no compression of the breast tissue, Koning said in a release. The procedure is quick, it takes 10 seconds for the system to acquire hundreds of images, Koning said.

Source: UBM Partner Site Diagnostic Imaging…

CHICAGO — “Some folks might think that I’m just a paranoid old guy who feels that the world is coming to an end and we had a great ride…but there are major disruptive changes in health care on the horizon, and unless we understand them and respond, I think, personally, the future of our profession is in jeopardy,” Paul Berger, MD, chairman, Partners in the Imaging Enterprise, and past founder and former chairman of NightHawk Radiology, said at RSNA…

With health care reform and payment model changes looming, there is a significant demand for the pioneers that are going to lead radiology into the future. Diagnostic Imaging spoke with James H. Thrall, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital at RSNA 2014 to gain some insight on what it takes to be a leader in…