Medical Imaging Blog

Medical Imaging Technology Update

Here is a collection of some of the latest news, advances and promising research in the medical imaging field:

Liver cancer treatment. Interventional radiologists may have discovered a way to better identify and modify blood vessels so that radiation-emitting – and cancer killing – beads can be delivered to inoperable liver tumors. Continue reading.
Stress and sleep studies. Neuroimaging has been used to study all kinds of things, but not the effect of stress and sleep deprivation. Scientists in Virginia hope to better understand how the brainstem and thalamus by recording the effects of stress and sleeplessness. Continue reading.

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Medical Imaging Economics at RSNA

Medical imaging professionals love RSNA. It’s a time to see old friends, connect with fellow professionals, and learn about the latest medical imaging hardware and software. It’s also a great place for people new to the field to start building their networks.

The other reason medical professionals look forward to RSNA is to learn about the economics that drive the industry. ACO’s, meaningful use, teleradiology, commoditization – these are all changing the medical imaging market, and professionals in the field should know how they may define the role of the medical imaging professional in the future.

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“Patients” or “Consumers”? The Changing Dynamics of HealthCare

How medical professionals – including medical imaging professionals – refer to their clients makes a lot of difference, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to the the authors of the article in the Journal, healthcare reform, with its overriding focus on controlling costs, has led to an “industrialized” or “standardized” approach to medicine. The result: hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities are viewed as “providers” of services which are used by “consumers.” Likewise, the language used to describe medical professional-patient interaction is that of a commercial transaction.

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3D PACS Come to the Forefront

The day of two-dimensional PACS isn’t quite over, but it soon will be. Three-dimensional PACS are rapidly becoming the norm in medical imaging centers throughout the country.

And for good reason.

Despite the exponential growth of processing and storage capability over the past decade, the PACS products available during that time generally did not keep pace with CT improvements that enabled radiologists to take images of ever-thinner sections of the body.

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Getting Lean in Medical Imaging

Many medical professionals have utilized lean manufacturing principles in their healthcare practices. Many more, in their desire to make their institutions more efficient, have unknowingly adopted the same principles.

According to an article in the Journal of American College of Radiology, it’s time for medical imaging professionals to think like lean manufacturers too.

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The Future of Healthcare Reform and Radiology

The Obama administration recently passed on an opportunity to prevent the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) from going to the Supreme Court, so we could have a decision about the Act’s constitutionality by next summer.

In the meantime, though, it’s best to proceed as if PPACA will be implemented as planned. For hospitals and healthcare organizations with radiology systems, that means that this article from Diagnostic Imaging is probably worth reading.

The article reports on the words of Robert Still, a doctor and practice manager at Lancaster Radiology Associates in Auburn, Pennsylvania. Still recently spoke at the AHRA’s annual meeting in Dallas.

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5 Tips for Managing Medical Imaging Data

Twenty years ago, very few people talked about the need for terabytes of data. Now, a terabyte seems like a pittance, especially to people in fields like medical imaging, which demand ever-greater data capacity to meet the ever-growing sophistication (and data hungry) imaging technologies.

But the growing volume of data leads to the growing number of data management problems. Information has to be organized to be meaningful, and today’s volume of information is too large for any one person to manage, especially in the high-volume fields of medical imaging.

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Boldly Going Where No Medical Imaging Has Gone Before

$100,000 doesn’t amount to much in the world of medical imaging. But in developing countries, it makes medical imaging available to thousands of people – and that’s just the first benefit.

Imaging the World (ITW), a non-profit that develops medical and technologies to bring medical imaging to remote areas around the world, recently received a $100,000 grant from Grand Challenges Explorations, which funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Grand Challenges Explorations is one of many global health initiatives funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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PACS Market Swings Toward Upgrades and Replacements

Back in May, we noted that the PACS market was growing steadily and that a significant portion would probably be in replacements and upgrades.

It turns out that we were right.

Here are the pertinent numbers from market research conducted by IMV’s Medical Information Division:

87 percent. That’s the percentage of expenditures involving PACS that’s going toward upgrading existing PACS systems.
85 percent. That’s the percentage of full-system PACS purchases that were replacement systems (meaning that just 15 percent were from first-time PACS buyers).

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Seven Features Every RIS Must Have

These days, it’s almost impossible to imagine a medical imaging practice without a radiology information system (RIS). Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to imagine practices with a sub-standard RIS. Medical imaging practices should look for these seven features in an RIS before buying or upgrading one:

Pre-Loaded and Customizable Tables. No one in a radiology department has time to create all the tables the department needs, which is why an RIS should come with the most common tables pre-loaded. But it should also allow the department to easily manipulate basic templates to meet its unique needs.

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