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August 2008 Blog Posts (92)

PACS vendors explore managed services model

August 13, 2008 PACS vendors explore managed services model Douglas Page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At first glance, the recent volley of vendor offerings called managed services looks like a reincarnation of the application service provider model popular a few years ago. The ASP concept offered hospitals all the benefits of having PACS without the initial capital outlay. Instead, customers contracted a third party to deploy and maintain an… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 13, 2008 at 1:30am — No Comments

Antihistamine, common drugs safely treat allergy-like contrast reactions

August 13, 2008 Antihistamine, common drugs safely treat allergy-like contrast reactions The American Roentgen Ray Society ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patients who have had acute allergic-like reactions to nonionic iodinated contrast material rarely develop serious long-term problems and can be treated safely with commonly used medications, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor.… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 13, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

New CMS anti-referral rules tighten knot on leasing arrangements

August 12, 2008 New CMS anti-referral rules tighten knot on leasing arrangements H. A. Abella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following its charge to reduce costly imaging overutilization, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced more stringent prohibitions against self-referral practices. Final Stark rules for the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System for 2009 could force providers to restructure numerous space and… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 12, 2008 at 7:30pm — No Comments

FUJIFILM Medical Systems, USA has clinched a fresh, three-year contract with Purchasing Partners LP

FUJIFILM Medical Systems, USA has clinched a fresh, three-year, dual-source contract. This contract was awarded to them by Premier Purchasing Partners, L.P for complete assortment of medical film and imagers, including mammography film, conventional wet film, dry film, and the complete set of laser imagers.

The contract comes into effect from September 1,2008. This award now combines two categories already held by Fujifilm into a single contract category. Premier, as of now… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on August 12, 2008 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Convenience helps mammography facilities keep patients

August 11, 2008 Convenience helps mammography facilities keep patients The American Roentgen Ray Society -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Location! Location! Location! The magic word for retail business success may also have a huge impact on breast imaging centers. Patients cite convenience to home or work as the main reason they changed mammography facilities, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati. Study… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 11, 2008 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Is CT useful in the Emergency Room? Of course!

Everyday new imaging practices emerge and hence, the computed tomography (CT) remains an important tool in the evaluation of patients who show critical symptoms of chest pain and trauma in the emergency department (ED), reported a recent review.

Researchers from various Centres in U.S. for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA) have just completed studying the demographics and current imaging practices of radiologists who have been with EDs. This research was an… Continue

Added by Ana on August 9, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments

Study sheds light on contrast-induced nephropathy in high-risk patients

August 8, 2008 Study sheds light on contrast-induced nephropathy in high-risk patients H. A. Abella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Researchers have established the safety of nonionic contrast media in adult and pediatric patients, but questions remained regarding the use of low- and iso-osmolar agents, particularly in patients at high risk of developing contrast-induced nephropathy. Now results from a prospective multicenter study done in China… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 8, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Radiology is Art!

Art is about visual sensation. Radiology is a visual area of medicine, but could it be artistic? Wim Delvoye thinks so! He is a Belgian artist, who uses X-ray imaging technique to redefine Gothic Art:

Read the rest of this post here.

Added by András Székely on August 8, 2008 at 5:48pm — 7 Comments

radRounds reaches 888 members on 8.08.08 - 8AM!

Update: radRounds reaches 888 members on 8.08.08 - 8AM! After only 6 months of launch, we are the largest radiologist and medical imaging professional and social network. Thanks to all those who have contributed cases and also invited your colleagues to share in this site.

We are working hard to continue to bring improvements in the website.

Latest updates:

**Privacy enhancements - you can ensure that your profile is viewed by you, your connections, or everyone; you… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on August 8, 2008 at 11:11am — 2 Comments

CTA beats MRA, ultrasound for early evaluation of peripheral arterial disease

August 7, 2008 CTA beats MRA, ultrasound for early evaluation of peripheral arterial disease Don Rauf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multislice CT angiography should be the preferred choice over MR angiography or duplex ultrasound for initial evaluation of patients with suspected peripheral arterial disease. Dr. Rody Ouwendijk of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, drew this conclusion from a four-hospital study… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 7, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Featured Company: Oakwood Healthcare Systems

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc., an US company, announced a successful stint at Oakwood Healthcare Systems (OHS), by centralizing scheduling of all the OHS radiology departments in the organization. USA’s number one rated enterprise scheduling application, Resource Management System (RMS), is being utilized in 4 inpatient hospitals and 8 outpatient sites thereby allowing almost all the steps of the pre-registration process to be merged into a single-step process. This has ultimately… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on August 7, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Residents, fellows, medical students: Win $100 if your image is selected by RadiologyInfo.org!

A message from the RSNA:

Residents, fellows, physics students and medical students are invited to submit their images and videos to the RadiologyInfo™ Outstanding Image contest. Winning images—with acknowledgement of the contributors—will illustrate existing pages of RadiologyInfo.org, RSNA’s online resource for patients, which provides information on more than 100 exams and procedures.

Randomly selected contributors also receive an Amazon gift card.… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on August 7, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments

Diagnostic Imaging 2.0: New series on TomographyBlog.com

What is Diagnostic Imaging 2.0? In short, it is a set of Web 2.0 tools tailored for the exact needs of diagnostic imaging professionals.

So, in the next couple days, I am going to write a series of posts about Diagnostic Imaging 2.0, which will include specific: * Search engines * Social communities * Podcasts and videocasts * Wikis * Blogs * Study sources My aim is to show how Web 2.0 tools may enhance communication amongst diagnostic imaging… Continue

Added by András Székely on August 7, 2008 at 1:09am — No Comments

Ever wonder what is under the hood of a CT scanner?

Check this out! See how fast a CT scanner gantry is rotating with the cover off! Technorati Profile

Technorati… Continue

Added by Jennifer Larson on August 6, 2008 at 10:30pm — No Comments

Speed, spatial resolution add clinical detail to CTA

August 6, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Speed, spatial resolution add clinical detail to CTA Dual-energy scanning offers potential to remove bone and arterial calcium, clarifying angiographies Paula Gould -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cardiovascular imaging has much to gain from developments in CT. The improved temporal and spatial resolution has already translated into superior image quality. Now the radiology community is waiting to see whether… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 6, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Rapid scanning shows benefits in cardiac CT

August 6, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Rapid scanning shows benefits in cardiac CT Higher image quality boosts radiologist confidence in diagnoses, while lower dose protects patients Paula Gould -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The clinical impact of new technology is often difficult to quantify. In cardiac CT, however, the connection between diagnostic performance and latest generation scanning technology is crystal clear. The most obvious benefit… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 6, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Oncology poised to gain from perfusion studies

August 6, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Oncology poised to gain from perfusion studies Tumor microvessel network indicates effectiveness of anti-antiogenic treatment faster than does lesion size Paula Gould -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stroke is typically the headline application in all discussions of perfusion CT. Now interest in this technique is growing from a very different direction: oncology imaging. The development of anti-angiogenic cancer… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 6, 2008 at 9:00pm — No Comments

MSCT matches cardiac MRI for emergency myocardial infarction assessment

August 6, 2008 MSCT matches cardiac MRI for emergency myocardial infarction assessment H. A. Abella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multislice CT is just as accurate as MRI in assessing myocardial infarct size in an emergency setting, according to a recent study conducted by researchers in France and the U.S. The latest data validate previous findings suggesting delayed-enhancement myocardial CT correlates well with measures of infarction size… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 6, 2008 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Nuance performing well in the NY market!

Today nearly three hundred New York Hospitals, Radiology Imaging Centres and Physician Offices enhance their patient care, streamline their workflow and are continuously reducing costs by using “Speech Recognition” solutions.

Nuance Communications, Inc., a leading provider of Speech Solution, highlighted its healthcare division’s achievement in the above mentioned “Speech Recognition” service in the New York metropolitan area. As of now, the services of Nuance solutions are being… Continue

Added by Ana on August 6, 2008 at 4:30am — No Comments

CT takes different directions to tackle age-old problems

August 5, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. CT takes different directions to tackle age-old problems Fresh approach to earlier technology brings results as slice wars begin to run their course Paula Gould -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of CT used to be easy to predict. So-called slice wars dominated the discussion as vendors wheeled out their latest multidetector machines. CT systems were ranked according to a kind of geometric progression:… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on August 5, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments