April 15, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Report from ISMRM: Organizers emphasize clinical themes By James Brice Innovation has always been the name of the game for the annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. The 17th annual meeting beginning Saturday in Honolulu again showcases MRI science in action. But for this meeting, organizers added new features emphasizing MRI's clinical applications and capitalizing on new communications technologies to encourage…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 15, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 14, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Radiology’s shine fades a bit among medical students By H.A. Abella Radiology may no longer be the fairest of all the possible specialty choices for U.S. medical school seniors, according to results of the 2009 National Residency Matching Program. Still, it remains within the top 10 most popular medical specialties. Radiology was the fifth most popular specialty back in 2007 among U.S. senior med students who participated in the NRMP program. By 2009, the…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 14, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 13, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. CT use in pregnant women skyrockets at Rhode Island hospital By Rebekah Moan The CT imaging rate for pregnant women at two hospitals affiliated with Brown University's medical school grew at an explosive 25.3% annual rate from 1997 and 2006, while medical imaging involving ionizing radiation for this population more than doubled. A study that in appeared in March on the online edition of Radiology raised concern among radiologists who have suspected that…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 13, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 10, 2009 Easter Bunny appears in vascular ultrasound exam By James Brice Dr. Greg Rose has uncovered radiological proof that the Easter Bunny is more than a figment of the popular imagination. Mr. Bunny appeared while Rose, a radiologist and CEO of NightRays, was performing early morning preliminary readings via teleradiology on Feb. 21 for Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, TX. The medium of choice for the appearance was a vascular ultrasound study performed on a 36-year-old…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 10, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 8, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. CT reveals Queen Nefertiti’s nose job By Rebekah Moan Plastic surgery may have some early roots. German physicians have scanned the bust of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt with CT, showing marked differences between an inner core -- that more accurately depicts the queen -- and the outer layer where her nose bump is smoothed and her wrinkles are erased. …
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 8, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 7, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Report from HIMSS: Laptops and mobile communications devices create security nightmare By Greg Freiherr Procedures to ensure patient privacy don't do much if the patient data end up on portable electronics. This happens more commonly than might be expected, according to a survey reported at the 2009 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society meeting in Chicago. Credant Technologies, a Dallas-based firm specializing in data protection solutions,…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 7, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 6, 2009 Medicare approves coverage of FDG-PET for 11 cancers By H.A. Abella The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has opened a new chapter in the practice of positron emission tomography with the announcement for a national Medicare payment policy that expands coverage of PET scans in the initial treatment strategy of most solid cancers and for myeloma. Nuclear physicians immediately praised the long awaited decision. According to the decision memo published April 3, CMS will…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 6, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 6, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Broader Medicare PET coverage promises to cut costs, streamline patient management By H.A. Abella Nuclear physicians praised the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' decision to expand Medicare coverage of PET scans in the initial treatment strategy of most solid cancers and myeloma. More than a third of Medicare patients will now be able to get PET scans without going through the National Oncologic PET Registry. "The vast majority of Medicare patients…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 6, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 3, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Obama budget makes no assumptions about Medicare sustainable growth rate cuts By James Brice The $3.5 trillion spending plan passed by the House and Senate April 2 reflects the recent reality of applying the Medicare sustainable growth rate policy on physician fees. It anticipates that Congress will again intervene to stave off the pending 21% cut to physician fees next year and actually estimates that payments will grow by $147.1 billion from 2010 to 2014. The…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 3, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 2, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. AIUM preview: Sonologists bring annual convention to Facebook By H.A. Abella The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine has launched a social networking site to allow attendees to hook up, discuss, and even blog before, during, and after the group's 2009 meeting in New York City starting April 2. At least a dozen ultrasound subspecialties are now linked through the site, as well as through Facebook and Twitter. AIUM members deem their clinical practice…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 2, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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April 2, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. GE and Bracco spar over court ruling By Greg Freiherr The debate between GE and Bracco over GE's marketing of its Visipaque contrast agent continues despite a U.S. District Court finding that GE used false advertising to win sales for the x-ray contrast agent. GE Healthcare is permanently enjoined from making such claims and must pay Bracco damages of $11.4 million. The ruling is a consequence of litigation begun six years ago by Bracco and settled in a New…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 2, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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April 1, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Report from ACC: Cardiologists slowly adopt appropriateness criteria By Alice Goodman More than 13% of SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging exams are performed without clinical justification, and the appropriateness of another 14% is questionable, according to a pilot study that assesses physician referring practices and compliance with American College of Cardiology Appropriate Use Criteria. The investigation suggests that cardiologists and other ordering…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on April 1, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 31, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Drug-eluting stents reduce repeat treatment in peripheral arterial disease By H.A. Abella Drug-eluting stents provide a significantly higher patency rate after three years in patients with critical limb ischemia compared with bare metal stents. Findings of a recent study suggest that drug-eluting stents can reduce also postintervention treatment rates. Critical limb ischemia has reached epidemic proportions, leading to nearly a quarter million amputations and…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 31, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 30, 2009 DiagnosticImaging.com. UPDATE -- X-ray contrast case: Bracco wins $11.4 M in damages from GE By Greg Freiherr Buoyed by last week's U.S. District Court decision, Bracco Diagnostics is anything but shy about saying GE Healthcare used "false and misleading advertising and marketing" to gain an advantage for its Visipaque x-ray contrast agent over Bracco's Isovue product. But how -- or even whether -- the company will use the legal finding in its future marketing of Isovue is a…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 30, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 27, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Congress intervenes to force continued nuclear medicine funding at DOE By James Brice Nuclear medicine advocates enlisting the help of Congress have forced the Department of Energy to continue to fund basic research for radioisotope and imaging instruments design, despite DOE plans to use its scientists to develop nuclear imaging tools for biological and environmental applications. At the urging of SNM, Congress included language in the fiscal 2009…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 27, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 26, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Radiologist slapped with $2 million fine for billing fraud blames recordkeeping By James Brice A radiologist implicated in one of the largest billing fraud cases in Medicare history is blaming poor recordkeeping for a federal investigation and prosecution that led him and his partner to a $2 million settlement with Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Settlement terms were announced March 25. To settle Medicare's false claims…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 26, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 25, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Decision-analytic model guides cervical cancer treatment By Rebekah Moan MRI and/or PET/CT can help physicians determine appropriate treatment for cervical cancer patients as well as prevent unnecessary therapy, according to a study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. Treatment of patients with cervical cancer involves two options. The first is surgery with or without postoperative adjuvant chemoradiation (chemotherapy and radiation therapy).…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 25, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 24, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Drug-resistant TB shows abnormalities on CT By Rebekah Moan Micronodules, tree-in-bud appearance, consolidations, cavities, bronchiectasis, and lobular consolidations are frequent CT abnormalities of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Dr. Eun Sun Lee from the Seoul National Hospital in Korea and colleagues made these determinations by retrospective review of microbiological results and drug sensitivity tests of 260 patients. They had been diagnosed with…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 24, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 23, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Minority groups join outcry over CMS’ rejection of CTC screening coverage By H.A. Abella Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have joined the ranks of CT colonography advocates to pressure the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reverse a proposal to deny reimbursement for CTC screening. Proponents argue that the policy could widen existing colon cancer screening inequalities. In a Proposed Decision Memorandum issued Feb. 11, CMS suggested that…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 23, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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March 20, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. CT computer-aided volumetry fast tracks pneumothorax measurement Rebekah Moan Potential deadly traumatic pneumothoraces can be measured in the emergency room with a computer-aided volumetric technique that helps move patients from diagnosis to treatment many times faster than conventional visual assessments of the condition with multislice CT. The new approach, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital, has potential implications for the 30% to 39% of chest…
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Added by Diagnostic Imaging on March 20, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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