Subspecialization and Teleradiology: An Uneasy Alliance

November 28, 2011 | Feature

Why would orthopedic surgeons bypass a nearby hospital or imaging center when referring patients? If they happened to be in the Midwest, they might prefer the subspecialized interpretations offered by Linda L. Dew, MD, FRCPC. After more than two decades as a practicing radiologist, Dew has developed expertise in... Read More »

Breast Tomosynthesis: How I Read It

November 28, 2011 | Priors

Now that digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has gained FDA approval, many breast-imaging providers find themselves excited about the new technology, but facing uncertainty about reimbursement, implementation, and interpretation workflow. There remain a number of questions related to the display of (and approach to interpreting) DBT that need to be... Read More »

Quantifying Interventional Radiology’s Tangible Value

July 04, 2011 | NONE

In recent years, interventional radiologists have had an easier time with the long-standing challenge of impressing their diagnostic colleagues with the intangible worth of a clinical interventional-radiology service. A radiology practice with clinical feet on the street has at least a fighting chance of outrunning a remote teleradiology service. <... Read More »

The Lure and the Legend of Office-based Interventional Radiology

July 04, 2011 | Feature

By the nature of their subspecialty, interventional radiologists are enamored of innovations that engender emerging minimally invasive therapies, and the 2011 annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) in Chicago, Illinois, did not disappoint. Interventional-radiology researchers reported promising outcomes from clinical trials for stroke therapy, multiple-sclerosis treatment, and... Read More »

Breast MRI:How I Read It

July 04, 2011 | Priors

Breast MRI has emerged as a powerful new tool in the fight against breast cancer. It has found wide acceptance in the past 10 years, and it appears to be one of the most rapidly growing medical studies. When breast MRI is combined with mammography and breast ultrasound, we are... Read More »

Breast-center Care Anywhere: Bringing Subspecialty Expertise to the Rural United States

June 17, 2011 | NONE

Accessing high-quality radiology services in rural areas of the United States always represents a challenge, and nowhere is this dilemma more poignant to both patients and providers than in the area of mammography. Arlene Sussman, MD, director of breast imaging at Virtual Radiologic (vRad), Eden Prairie, Minnesota, says, “Imagine... Read More »

Radiology and the Heart

February 16, 2011 | Feature

Cardiology and radiology: Are they two specialties working in tandem for optimal patient care or two opposing armies in a turf battle? The answer, of course, is complicated, and can’t be approached without an acknowledgement of the ground already ceded to cardiology.

In today’s hospitals,... Read More »

NLST Proves Lives Can Be Saved: Now Comes the Difficult Step of Implementation

December 12, 2010 | Imaging Futures

One of the most extensive and ambitious medical-screening trials in US has been stopped. It’s because of good news: Low-dose helical CT (LDCT) exams can cut lung-cancer deaths by as much as 20%, compared with chest radiography alone, according to early results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST).... Read More »

Achieving Certification

November 28, 2010 | NONE

Primary stroke center certification by the Joint Commission is based broadly on three components: standards, guidelines, and performance measures. Under the umbrella of components are 11 criteria that must be met for certification, according to M.J. Hampel, MPH, MBA, senior associate director of the Joint Commission’s Disease-Specific Care... Read More »

Saving Brain: Building the LA Stroke Network

November 28, 2010 | Feature

In Los Angeles County, a 4,752–square-mile urban–suburban sprawl that is home to an estimated 10 million people, no one knows exactly how many acute strokes occur each year or how well they are managed. Nationwide, stroke is the number-three cause of death; stroke-related medical costs in 2010 are estimated at $73.7... Read More »

Shortage of Radiation Oncologists Predicted

November 28, 2010 | Priors

An article by Smith et al,¹ published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, forecasts an impending shortage of radiation oncologists, suggesting that the number of residents in training from 2014 through 2019 must double to meet demand. The authors modeled demand through 2020 (see table) by multiplying current utilization rates... Read More »

Imaging in Clinical Trials: Endpoints, Biomarkers, and Methods

November 28, 2010 | Priors

This article is the second in a series of three providing a background and primer to radiologists and imaging professionals interested in clinical trials. It offers background on regulatory approval and on the use of surrogate endpoints and imaging biomarkers, as well as touching on the administration of medical... Read More »

Mammography’s Crisis Offers Opportunity, Too

November 15, 2010 | Regulatory Report

Michael N. Linver, MD, FACR, is committed to mammography screening to detect breast cancer—what he calls screening’s role in saving women’s lives. When it comes to mammography, Linver also has a combative side: Now that screening mammography has come under attack from some critics as a... Read More »

Breast Cancer: The Case for the Radiologist-centered Diagnostic Paradigm

October 13, 2010 | Feature

As the diagnostic work-up for breast cancer has become more complex, often involving multiple imaging modalities, the surgeon-centered diagnostic paradigm in breast care has become less efficient. With the introduction of breast MRI into the diagnostic armamentarium, the need for a new radiologist-centered work-up became evident.

At... Read More »

Novel Biomarker Rivals SAP in Amyloid Imaging Using SPECT/CT

October 13, 2010 | Image Gallery

The winning entry, left, in a recent vendor-sponsored preclinical- imaging competition presented at the World Molecular Imaging Conference in Kyoto, Japan, compared the amyloid-binding efficacy of the imaging agent 125I- SAP (in use in Europe, but not approved for use in the United States) with a novel peptide tracer devised... Read More »

Keeping Radiology on the Cutting Edge

October 13, 2010 | Clinical Research

Over the past two decades, imaging has undergone revolutionary and evolutionary changes in both the clinical and nonclinical spheres. Part of this evolution has been the acceptance of imaging as an endpoint or marker for evaluation of the efficacy of therapy in clinical trials. As a result, new doors... Read More »

The Road to Acceptance: CCTA for Chest Pain in the ED

July 07, 2010 | Feature

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) could be radiology’s most notorious underperformer. As the number of CT detectors increased from one to 256 and beyond, as the resulting images showed ever more exquisite detail of the chambers and vessels of the heart, CCTA nonetheless failed to overcome politics, sluggish reimbursement, and... Read More »

Innovation From the Outside In: Olivia Ho Cheng, CEO of Aurora

May 17, 2010 | CXO Files

Olivia Ho Cheng, CEO

Olivia Ho Cheng, CEO of Aurora Imaging Technology Inc, North Andover, Massachusetts, was recently appointed to the international advisory board for the Read More »

The Cosmetic Frontier: BOTOX and Beyond

April 29, 2010 | NONE

According to data¹ from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), the number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States has spiked in the past decade; ASAPS estimates that injections of botulinum toxin A (BOTOX®, Allergan, Inc, Irvine, California) increased by over 3,000% between 1997 and 2003, while collagen... Read More »

Building an Efficient, Effective Women’s Imaging Service

April 29, 2010 | Feature

Ask providers of women’s imaging services why they stick with the niche, in spite of declining reimbursement and the risk of malpractice suits, and the answer you’ll get is a simple one: patient interaction. It’s the ability to work directly with patients in potentially life-changing ways... Read More »

Radisphere National Radiology Group Launches

April 12, 2010 | Quality

To further its aim of extending subspecialty radiology services to community hospitals, Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology, Beachwood, Ohio, recently announced the creation of a new company called Radisphere National Radiology Group. True to its name, the group will have a national scope, with the ability to provide radiology... Read More »

From Here to Eternity: Extending the Franchise Through Distributed-reading Solutions

February 24, 2010 | Feature

Few developments in radiology have been more productive (or disruptive) than the advent of PACS. To PACS, radiology owes its ability to increase productivity dramatically during the past 10 years, thereby conserving income levels at a time of diminishing reimbursement. To PACS, radiology also owes the very real threat of... Read More »

Automating Management of Critical Results

December 22, 2009 | Quality

When Jane Wheatley, CEO of Taylor Regional Hospital, Campbellsville, Kentucky, needed to make a decision regarding her facility’s handling of radiology services, she had two imperatives in mind: cost and quality. After the hospital’s radiology group disbanded in the early 2000s, the 90-bed acute care center contracted... Read More »

JAMA Article Slams Mammography: At What Cost?

December 01, 2009 | Imaging News

When JAMA published an opinion piece1  in October 2009 questioning the effectiveness of mammography screening and calling for new screening protocols to separate life-threatening cancers from less harmful lesions, the mammography community reacted with alarm. Lawrence Bassett, MD, FACR, Iris Cantor professor of breast imaging at the David Geffen... Read More »

24/7 Coverage: The New Norm

October 02, 2009 | Feature

Teleradiology has reshaped the delivery of imaging services across the board, but it has had a particularly strong impact on around-the-clock coverage. Hospitals are demanding 24/7 imaging service as the expected level of patient care, partly because an attentive emergency department generates business in surgical suites and elsewhere. Even for... Read More »