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Forecasting Imaging Use Under Health-care Reform
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CT and MRI: Regional Variations in Utilization and Reimbursement
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Hospital-based Versus Freestanding Outpatient Imaging Services
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Cost Comparison: Hospital-based Versus Freestanding Outpatient Imaging Services
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Radiology-group Financial Performance
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Outpatient Imaging Utilization Trends
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The Radiology Staffing Market, Temporary and Permanent
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The Eyes Have It
May 18, 2012
This week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONR) threw down a $150,000 gauntlet for the development of a multidisciplinary solution that would advance electronic image collection and sharing across a variety of specialties.
The Ocular Imaging Challenge, which runs until November 9, 2012, will award $150,000 in the form of three top prizes to the creator of “an application that improves interoperability among office-based ophthalmic imaging devices, measurement devices, and EHRs,” according to the challenge rules.
Documenting ophthalmic exams in EHR “creates barriers to full acceptance and use of EHRs within the medical community,” according to the ONC. The big challenge is how to collect and display the results of ophthalmic visual field testing and numerical and image data, which are often stored in proprietary formats that impede their incorporation into EHR and PACS systems. The ONC ascribes this problem to limited adoption of DICOM and noncompliance with its standards among legacy devices.
But the feds are hoping the contest will cast a wider net, saying it has “every expectation” that whatever the winning solution offers will be “immediately translatable” to ENT, physiatry, and cardiology image-sharing.
Canadian Gov’t Highlights Imaging with $6.9M Grant, Federal Recognition
May 18, 2012
A day after the Canadian government declared its inaugural Medical Imaging Team Day, the House of Parliament got behind another subspecialty initiative to the tune of $6.9 million, which will be spent to broaden innovation in image-guided oncology and cardiology therapies, according to an announcement from FedDev Ontario.
New Plastics Could Replace Metal Monofilaments for MR, X-Ray
May 18, 2012
Putnam Plastics of Dayville, CT is commercializing a proprietary plastics extrusion process that could develop non-metal custom monofilaments for MR and X-Ray devices, the company announced this week.
Erwin Cruz, Defrauded TX Doctor, Awarded $10.6M in Fraud Suit
May 17, 2012
After a two-week trial, a Dallas jury awarded Dr. Erwin Cruz nearly $11 million in damages, finding that his former business partners, Mehrdad “Mike” Ghani and Dr. Michael Taba, tried to undermine his stake in a pair of imaging practices: North Dallas Medical Imaging, L.P., and Plano AMI, L.P., according to a statement from Cruz’s attorneys.
Former Teleradiologist Stumps for Standardization of Radiology Practices
May 17, 2012
“Traditional radiology has had much to say about teleradiology…yet relatively little has been written about radiology and radiology practice from the perspective of teleradiology,” says Vanderbilt University radiologist Richard G. Abramson in the journal Radiology this month.
EXCLUSIVE: CDI CEO Talks Whistleblower Suit, Imaging Billing Issues
May 17, 2012
Earlier this week, a settlement was reached in a five-year whistleblower suit against Minneapolis, MN-based Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Inc..
DICOM Grid Closes $5M in Expansion Financing for DG Suite
May 16, 2012
Phoenix, AZ-based DICOM Grid closed a $5 million round of expansion financing today that the company hopes will allow for the expansion of its DG Suite cloud-based imaging platform.
Announcing the Top 5 Imaging IT Projects of 2012
May 16, 2012
Innovation in imaging IT will take center stage at SIIM 2012, when the top five imaging IT projects of 2012 will be presented to convention attendees.
New Software Module Could Shave Seven Weeks off Research Results Reporting
May 15, 2012
A new QA compliance module could help reduce errors in clinical data submission and accelerate the speed at which imaging data for medical trials is processed.
Medscape Survey: Is Medicine All About the Benjamins?
Posted on May 14, 2012 by Cat Vasko
It’s not often that my recreational reading intersects with my professional reading, but I was fascinated by the discussion in the comments of this Gawker post, which briefly remarks on the now-notorious Medscape survey in which only 54% of physicians said they would choose a career in medicine if they had it to do over.
“What gives?” was the question that drove me to the discussion underneath, hoping Gawker’s famously prosaic commenters would offer some additional insight. From an outsider’s perspective, few other fields would seem to combine the fulfillment of helping others with such
+ business
Radiology and the IDN: The Big Shift
Growing your high-tech imaging business is just not the same game that it used to be, according to William Barta, corporate director of imaging services for Fairview Health Services (Minneapolis, Minnesota). “The days of patients coming to us just because they have to are gone,” he says. “It’s a whole different mindset from what health care used to be years ago. It really boils down to the economy, and health care is late to the game, from a sales perspective.”
He continues, “Disposable dollars are fewer, and gas prices are up; employers are expecting people to
+ leadership
The Supersized Generation
A maxim in radiology, as we traverse this most uncertain health-care landscape, is that size matters. In fact, it matters a lot. Consolidation is accelerating among independent radiology groups—especially those that have, for years, deferred the tough decisions that might have given them some breathing room as more aggressive competitors encroached on their territory—and the result is the formation of megapractices that enjoy certain economies and benefits of scale.
As next-generation practices are being shaped in shareholder boardrooms around the country, it is interesting to note that each of the three basic options facing today
+ imaging informatics
The United State of Imaging in Tacoma
Located on the Puget Sound about 35 miles south of Seattle, Washington, the community of Tacoma and surrounding Pierce County benefit from a number of innovations that are linking local radiology providers in an uncommon collaboration. Through IT and service agreements across two competing hospital systems and two separate radiology groups, all parties report improvements in multiple areas of patient care.
It’s most notable that imaging-report turnaround times have dramatically improved in the emergency departments involved, where even small delays can mean the difference between life and death. Other quality indicators are being tracked and measured using
+ radiology service lines
Is It Worth It? Radiology and Comparative-effectiveness Research
Imaging is increasingly pervasive in modern medicine; according to a 2011 study¹ published in Radiology, the use of CT scans in emergency-department visits has risen 16% per year since 1995, and the report estimated that the modality could have been used in 20% of emergency-department visits in 2011. Remarkably little research has been performed to validate certain applications of advanced imaging, however.
“There’s a real lack of evidence for diagnostics, especially as to whether they are comparatively effective,” according to Larry Kessler, MD, professor and chair of the department of health services at the University of Washington School of Public
+ macroeconomics
UC Davis Medical Center Embarks on Journey to Reduce Dose by 20%
Dose management (including dose-reduction strategies) is a dominant topic of conversation throughout the imaging world. Cross-disciplinary efforts to resolve the issue are moving to the forefront of both vendor and provider dockets, spurred on not least by quality metrics that tie reimbursement rates to patient outcomes.
At UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, radiology professor J. Anthony Seibert, PhD, and his colleagues are working to lower the radiation dose that their patients receive by some 20%. It’s an ambitious goal, but one that they believe is reasonable, with the implementation of statistical iterative reconstruction techniques, dose
Billing Transparency for Radiology Groups Recording
Radiology efficiency: The Leading Edge
Smart Practice Decisions Begin with Data Integration Recording
Developing a Comprehensive IT Strategy for the Practice: Roles, Relationships, Resources
Centralized Imaging and Collaboration in Today’s Decentralized Imaging Business
Extreme RIS: Breaking Down Communication Barriers
Advanced Visualization | Next-generation Architectures
RIS to the Rescue | Strategies for Driving Revenue, Productivity and Profitability
Benchmarking and Reporting for Improved Reimbursement
Keep Your Hospital Relationships Healthy: Strategies for Every Practice
+ Leading Health Industry Executive Joins Integrated Medical Partners, LLC
+ iCRco Announces Additional Executive to Better Serve Global Customers
+ iCRco CEO Announces Promotion to Boost Support to Domestic Programs
+ iCRco Sees Global Growth – Responds With Promotion and Expansion
+ AHRA | The Association for Medical Management
+ American College of Healthcare Executives
+ American College of Radiology
+ NSW Medical Radiation Scientists
+ Radiology Business Management Association
+ Radiology Meaningful Use Site
+ Radiological Society of North America
+ SIIM - The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine