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RadRounds Radiology Network's Blog (797)

Productivity-based compensation: why it’s such a challenge

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- At best, productivity-based compensation is a hot topic; at worst, it is potentially the downfall of those promoting it—if not threatening to the very survival of a group. Are there groups compensating on a productivity-based model? Yes, but very few.

As technology has improved productivity of radiologists overall, it has also contributed to the disparity between those at the top of the production scale and those at the bottom. In a typical group, there… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 19, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Of skin-colored gowns and brain MRI

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Every so often you come across an idea that has so much merit you can’t imagine why somebody hadn’t come up with it before. Such is the case with hospital gowns matched to a patient’s skin color. Although sky blue and forest green might be stunning on the right patient, it is hard to imagine either one helping docs spot signs of diseases that can be found in skin color changes.

Human eyes are hardwired to detect these changes, say the folks at Rensselaer… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 18, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

AMCLC Daily Wrap Up: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 18, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Leadership and new thinking needed to preserve hospital practice contracts

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- The landscape for hospital-based radiologists has shifted dramatically in the last couple of years and they’ll need to update their thinking if they hope to preserve their hospital contracts, and perhaps, a significant role in medicine, a pair of presenters said Sunday at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting in San Diego.

Speaking with Diagnostic Imaging in advance of a special forum on practice business issues, Drs. Lawrence Muroff and Alan Kaye… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 17, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

AMCLC Daily Wrap Up: Monday, May 17, 2010

Securing Radiology’s Place in Health Care

Speakers report on residents, research, and the specialty’s relationships.…

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 17, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

RadNet buys Sonix Medical Resources out of bankruptcy

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- RadNet acquired three more multimodality facilities on Tuesday, concluding the company's second acquisition in as many months. The new purchase, Sonix Medical Resources, came from a bankruptcy proceeding in New York.

See full article and related articles at DiagnosticImaging.com

This article was republished with… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 16, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

ACR AMCLC Meeting Roundup for May 16th 2010

Taking Radiology Off the Menu

AMCLC empowers radiologists to safeguard the specialty from external forces.…

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 16, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Is imaging being overused on Medicare cancer patients?

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- The use—and cost—of modern imaging was rising among Medicare patients with cancer as they entered the 21st century, according to research released April 27 by the Journal of the American Medical Association. From 1999 through 2006, imaging costs rose at a faster rate among Medicare beneficiaries than any other cost associated with their fight against cancer.

The trend is likely continuing, according to the Duke University researchers who carried out the… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 15, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

House panel chairs ask accountability office to probe imaging self-referral

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- At the request of the American College of Radiology, House Energy and Commerce chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ways & Means Committee chair Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI), and Ways & Means Subcommittee on Health chair Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) have called on the General Accountability Office to perform a study regarding the effects of physician self-referral of advanced medical imaging and radiation therapy treatments on Medicare spending.

Previous GAO… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 14, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Radiologist Salary

(SOURCE: Salary Wizard)

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 14, 2010 at 12:26am — No Comments

Philips’ Q1 numbers offer hope for improved imaging marketplace

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- For the first time in a year and a half, orders for Philips medical imaging equipment edged up in North America. It is the first tangible glimmer of hope that the great imaging recession may finally be over.

Executives at imaging companies have been telling me for months that the installed base had aged more in the last few years than ever before. Equipment that would otherwise have been replaced was still in service, kept going by upgrades and updates.… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 12, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

A new CT generation takes shape: thinking outside the circle

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- By Greg Freiherr | April 16, 2010

Thirty-three years ago, University Hospitals in Madison, WI, unveiled to the local media a device that just about everybody had some fun with, the CAT scanner. Working as I was at the time for the UW medical school, I wrote the story for that unveiling. Dutifully I stepped aside as my boss lay on the table for faux pictures and video of the device “in action.” Publication of a cartoon cat looking intensely through a… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 11, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Changes in medical staff bylaws could protect radiology contracts

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Support from hospital medical staff and bylaws that give the staff a stronger role in scrutinizing staffing decisions could help protect radiology practices against hospital management dropping their contracts, the administrator of one of the largest practices in the country contends.

The practice, Radiology Associates of Sacramento, just lost a major contract with Sutter Health, even though the practice enjoyed strong support from the Sutter medical… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 10, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

More money, better care hinge on wider use of images

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) --

Radiologists express their diagnostic findings in words, their exam reports typically containing not a single image. They would be better served politically, and their referring physicians and patients clinically, if they shared their images as well as their conclusions.

While text-only… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 9, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Merge Healthcare Completes Acquisition of AMICAS

Merge Healthcare Completes Acquisition of AMICAS

Combined company creates global, independent leader in medical imaging software and healthcare IT solutions

MILWAUKEE & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today’s successful close of the merger agreement between Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRGE) and AMICAS, Inc. (formerly NASDAQ: AMCS) creates a leading medical imaging software and healthcare IT solutions provider with strong customer relationships, innovative… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 29, 2010 at 10:14pm — No Comments

iPads for Doctors and Hospitals - Great early adopter move [News Brief]

(CALIFORNIA) -- While most iPad users have been consumers and business guys at this point. A big order of over 100 iPads at a California hospital was just placed! Kaweah Delta Health Care District has just ordered a whole bunch of iPads for their doctors and healthcare specialists for instant and mobile access of radiology/x-ray images, EKG results, and medical records. iPads actually turn out to be a very practical and superior solution when compared to other Windows-based tablets that are… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 21, 2010 at 3:36pm — No Comments

What Turf Battle? Gynecologists versus Interventional Radiologists

(RADROUNDS) - Today, BioSphere Medical announced results regarding a study about the referral relationships between gynecologists and interventional radiologists. The study was published in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. The study basically found that gynecologists who refer patients to interventional radiologists for UFE evaluation actually in the end receive in return an average of 19% more patients than they refer. So is there a turf battle at all? This is a clear "win win" as… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 17, 2010 at 9:04pm — No Comments

New Cancer Protocol for Medical Imaging

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- "Medical imaging takes key role in revolutionary new cancer protocol"

Imaging will play a pivotal role in a clinical trial that promises to change the way medical research is done, not only in oncology, but throughout medicine.

A multicenter trial, begun last week at the University of California, San Francisco and slated to expand to about 20 cancer centers in the U.S., will use medical images to assess patient response to experimental drugs being… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 14, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments

RadNet says it intends to acquire Truxtun, Health Diagnostics

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Los Angeles-based firm RadNet announced on March 15 it entered into letters of intent to acquire Truxtun Radiology Medical Group and the New Jersey operating subsidiary of Health Diagnostics. Health Diagnostics has four locations in New Jersey: Edison, Freehold, Green Brook, and Old Bridge.

In their quarterly report, RadNet says it expects the cash consideration for the acquisitions will be approximately $24.5 million, plus 375,000 shares of common… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 12, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments

FDA fires warning shot over smart phone bow

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Smart phones are the tip of a new spear in information technology. They can help you get directions when lost in an unfamiliar city, even turn on the lights at home when you’re blocks away. Radiologists see other uses. They might use mobile devices to receive and send images to each other and to referring physicians. Some are already using them this way. And that’s all fine and good, so long as the makers of the software that runs on these smart phones are careful. Very… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on April 10, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments