Hot-spotting and Imaging

March 14, 2011 by Cat Vasko

I’ve already fessed up to having a schoolgirl crush on Atul Gawande, surgeon, journalist, RSNA 2010 speaker and, I suspect/hope, fellow bleeding-heart liberal. His most recent article in The New Yorker looks at “hot-spotting,” the practice of providing intensive, personalized care only to the neediest patients as a means of lowering overall health care costs without making impossible demands of clinicians.

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Adios, Chi City

December 02, 2010 by Cat Vasko

I’m getting ready to bid Chicago a very fond farewell, but wanted to check in one last time to close out this year’s RSNA blog. What did you enjoy most at the show this year? I was shocked by how patients perceive the field of radiology and fascinated with how the ACR creates its Click here to read more and comment

Duty of Care: Should Radiologists Share Results with Patients?

December 02, 2010 by Cat Vasko

It keeps getting colder outside, but things were heating up in the session “Malpractice Issues in Radiology” this morning. Speakers Leonard Berlin, MD, Harley Hammerman, MD, and Richard Taxin, MD, didn’t hesitate to stir up a bit of controversy in addressing the issue of whether radiologists should communicate the results of all outpatient studies directly to their patients. Berlin got things started with a recent overview of legal cases involving radiologists charged with “failure to communicate.”

Thursday Bits and Bytes: Safety in Medical Imaging

December 02, 2010 by Cat Vasko

Today at RSNA, an expert panel met to discuss topics ranging from medical imaging appropriateness to radiation exposure from imaging to efforts toward curbing utilization. Panelists, who hailed from institutions all over the country, tackled the difficult task of clearing up public misconceptions about health risks from medical radiation. They aimed to spread public awareness of radiology’s role in ensuring patient safety – and of the role overutilization and self-referral can play in exposing patients to unnecessary radiation. “Imaging procedures conducted for the wrong reasons contribute to unnecessary costs and radiation exposure to patients,” said panel member William R....

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Under the Big Blue Carpet: Behind the Scenes at RSNA

December 01, 2010 by Cat Vasko

I attended my first RSNA in 2006, and although the McCormick convention center is, by now, so familiar to me that I could probably navigate it in my sleep, I’ve never lost my sense of astonishment at the mini-cities that are the exhibit halls. It seems like every year the vendors’ booths become more complex, and for some of the bigger, global corporations like GE, Philips and Siemens, circling the whole booth can take ten minutes or more.

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Takin’ Down Teleradiology: Should We, and Is It Possible?

December 01, 2010 by Cat Vasko

David Levin, MD, is not a big fan of teleradiology. In this morning’s session on “Addressing Threats to Radiology,” he stated his case bluntly: “There’s nothing that does a better job of commoditizing imaging than outsourcing to a teleradiology company.”

Of course, radiology groups are always going to feel the temptation of working with nighthawk firms, Levin said. It’s only natural – they handle the shifts no one else wants to take, such as nights...

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Wednesday Bits and Bytes: Cancer Risk from Medical Radiation Overestimated?

December 01, 2010 by Cat Vasko

According to a study presented today at RSNA, the risk of developing radiation-induced cancer from CT might be lower than we think. In a retrospective study of Medicare claims from 1998 to 2005 that included more than 10 million records, cancer incidences related to ionizing radiation from CT were estimated to be 0.02% for one group of patients and 0.04% for the other. “Our findings indicate a significantly lower risk of developing cancer from CT than previous estimates of 1.5% to 2% of the population,” said...

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Jonathan Berlin, MD, on Decommoditizing Imaging

December 01, 2010 by Cat Vasko

Stat Readers, I have but one word for you: SNOW!

You thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you? “Cloud,” “tomo,” “personalized” . . . well, sorry. I live in LA; snow is really exciting.

But that’s not the reason for this entry, I just had to share. The real reason is the terrific session I attended this morning on “Addressing Threats to Radiology,” kicked off by the wonderful Jonathan Berlin, MD, with a...

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Tuesday Bits and Bytes: East Meets West With fMRI of Acupuncture

November 30, 2010 by Cat Vasko

A study out of Essen, Germany presented today at RSNA pits traditional Eastern medicine against Western evaluation, using functional MRI to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture. When 18 patients underwent fMRI with an electric pain stimulus but without acupuncture, the modality revealed significant activation in the areas of the brain that process pain; however, when the same procedure was performed with acupuncture, these areas of the brain were significantly less active. “Until now, the role of acupuncture has been controversial,”...

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Phantom President

November 30, 2010 by Cat Vasko

Well, faithful Stat Readers, I was so excited to bring you coverage of Bill Clinton’s special address today that I queued up an hour early in the basement of the Lakeside Learning Center—only to learn, when I finally reached the theater doors twenty minutes later, that media is not allowed, even in the satellite rooms. The word on the street is that the only coverage of the talk will be in tomorrow’s RSNA Daily Bulletin, so I’ll get you that link as early as I can. Hopefully an RSNA member will be generous enough to...

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