The Role of CCTA in Primary Care

May 15, 2008 | Reading Room

Primary care physicians are increasingly referring patients for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) to provide accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) and earlier disease management for their patients. Most practitioners recognize the benefits of CCTA for those who are at risk of coronary disease, as well as for patients... Read More »

CCTA: The Road to Acceptance

May 15, 2008 | RadBrand Builder

The advancement of imaging technology is invariably followed by a host of related challenges. Many of these challenges are questions raised by payors and answered by various medical associations in an effort to ensure a seamless transition from research and development to practical use. Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) has... Read More »

Taking Charge of FFDM Workflow

April 15, 2008 | Radinformatics

Radiographic mammography can be difficult to interpret, and radiologists who read mammograms rely on prior studies to guide them. Many women wisely comply with the recommendation to have this lifesaving study annually, so radiologists are often doing a difficult job within a tight timeline because they must review many... Read More »

NightHawk Radiology: Trojan Horse or Saving Grace?

March 15, 2008 | Newsmakers

No one has played a greater role in transforming practice patterns in radiology than Paul S. Berger, MD. As the founder and CEO of NightHawk Radiology, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, Berger launched the company that not only dramatically improved the sleep patterns of US radiologists, but also ushered in... Read More »

Strategic Information-technology Deployment

March 15, 2008 | Strategic Planning

In my 25 years of informationtechnology management in four completely different industries (distribution, agricultural biotechnology, process manufacturing, and now health care), I have found that if information technology is considered a strategic resource, rather than purely a costsaving resource, the system’s efforts will be more likely to succeed.

Ron Hosenfeld and RivRad: Building an Effective Distributed Reading Solution

February 16, 2008 | Planning Portal

The road to a distributed reading model is paved with WAN accelerators, DICOM gateways, and sleepless nights, to hear one practice CIO describe it. Nonetheless, three and a half years after he began building a distributed reading solution to support the subspecialty reading model of Columbus, Ohio-based Riverside Radiology,... Read More »

Optimizing Coronary CTA Workflow: How We Do It

February 16, 2008 | The Virtuoso

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) provides an accurate evaluation of coronary-artery disease and coronary-artery anomalies, and it gives us the ability to evaluate the cardiac chambers, myocardium, and valves. Effective deployment of CCTA service requires optimization of workflow to make this procedure cost effective and practical.

After more... Read More »

UltraClinics: Same-day Cancer Diagnosis in Search of a Market

January 15, 2008 | A Better Mousetrap

Build a better mousetrap and they’ll beat a path to your door—or will they?

UltraClinics, Inc, is a company prepared to offer same-day interpretation of breast-biopsy tissue and, if needed, teleoncology consultation for women undergoing breast-cancer screening. Its processes and technologies have been patented and... Read More »

Get Over the Guilt: Leverage Teleradiology to Improve Hospital Service

January 15, 2008 | Quality

Teleradiology has come a long way from its origins in the 1980s, when physicians would snap a photo of a film and transmit the image across telephone lines. Remote review, once a last-resort option, is now a commonplace service employed by hospitals and practices alike to handle stat cases... Read More »

CXOFiles No.6 Alliance Imaging’s Paul S. Viviano: Master of Diversification

December 15, 2007 | CXO Files

When Paul S. Viviano, joined Alliance Imaging in January of 2003, the company was almost exclusively a mobile MRI vendor. Since then, the company’s chairman of the board and CEO has overseen an aggressive diversification strategy, moving the hospital-centric company into fixed-site MRI hospital partnerships, PET/CT, and most... Read More »

Share and Share Alike? Split Interpretations Pose a Challenge to Radiologists.

October 15, 2007 | Think Tank

As if radiologists were not facing sufficient challenges of late, they now are seeing increasing interest from cardiologists seeking to promote the sharing of certain studies. In some hospital settings, the cardiologists ask for an exception to the radiologists’ exclusive contract, so that the cardiologists can serve as additional... Read More »

Breast Imaging Paradox: It’s About the Annuity

October 15, 2007 | A Better Mousetrap

In 2002, Norwalk Radiology—like many radiology practices across the nation—reached a crossroads. Prepare to invest in expensive new digital mammography technology or stop doing mammograms. In fact, more mammography centers in the U.S. closed than opened between 2001 and 2004, but in Norwalk, Conn, practice president Allan Richman, MD,... Read More »

CXOFiles No.5 Marinaccio Leads Nassau Group in Latest Growth Spurt

September 15, 2007 | CXO Files

One would think a metropolitan radiology practice that is 100% dependant on the outpatient market for all income would be at a competitive disadvantage in this post-DRA marketplace. But, if the practice in question were Nassau Radiologic Group, one would be dead wrong. The 40-person practice, founded in 1927 and based... Read More »

Street Scan:  Hologic Buys Cytyc and a Foot in the OB/GYN Door

June 12, 2007 | Legislative Report

With its announcement that it would buy Cytyc, Marlborough, Mass, for $6.2 billion, Hologic Inc, Bedford, Mass, broadens its position in the women’s health care market and buys access to its gatekeeper: the obstetrician/gynecologist. Will the move precipitate a consolidation on the vendor side of diagnostics that would... Read More »

Breast MRI: An Imaging Center Opportunity to Raise Bar of Care

June 12, 2007 | Legislative Report

New guidelines from the American Cancer Society [1] recommending annual breast MRI for high-risk women are expected to result in significantly expanded demand for the study. Robert Smith, director for screening at the American Cancer Society, estimated that the new guidelines would add between 1 million and 2 million women a year... Read More »

Q & A with Daniel D. Maki, MD:  A Very Good Month for Breast MRI

April 15, 2007 | Legislative Report

March initiated what could be a sea change in the diagnosis of breast cancer in high-risk women, with results of a breast MR study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and, in the same week, new guidelines issued from the American Cancer Society (ACS) that recommended breast... Read More »

First, Do No Harm

April 15, 2007 | The Big Picture

The past few weeks have witnessed some rather remarkable national press reports about this marvelous profession that is the broad field of diagnostic imaging, and in each round of news coverage we have viewed both the opportunities and threats inherent in the practice of radiology in the public realm…... Read More »

Squeezing Blood from a Turnip

November 15, 2006 | NONE

There are several reasons to offer mammography in a freestanding imaging center, although profits are not usually one of them. Mammography brings decision-makers—women—to the center and many payors are beginning to demand a full range of imaging services from a site before letting it into their networks.... Read More »