Medical Imaging Blog

Recent Advances in Cardiac Medical Imaging

Onward and upward!

A recent article in Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology highlights some of the most exciting advances in medical imaging today

Multi-Modality. Medical imaging software increasingly allows cardiologists the ability to rapidly switch from one type of image to another or, in many cases, to see many different types of images simultaneously. The result: Faster workflows, more rapid diagnoses, and better patient care.
Faster Hardware and Cloud-Based Software. Both of these significantly reduce wait time while images are uploaded and make image manipulation less cumbersome. Perhaps best of all, they allow smaller healthcare organizations access to high-end advanced visualization tools.

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Improving Radiology Workflow After Technological Improvements

Technology won’t solve workflow issues. Just ask Jon Copeland.

Copeland is the CEO at Inland Imaging in Spokane, Washington, which provides radiology services to regional healthcare practices. Specifically, he is responsible for assembling specialists who provide consulting services to a variety of private and public clients.

By 2006, Inland Imaging employed 65 radiologists, was completely filmless, used voice-recognition software, and had a single PACS database with connections to the Radiology Information System (RIS) of six vendors.

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Cardiovascular Medical Imaging in Decline

A recent article by cardio writer Larry Husten confirms what most cardiovascular medical imaging specialists already know: The number of cardiocascular procedures performed in hospitals is going down.

From July 2010 to July 2011, hospital cardiovascular procedures – which include medical imaging procedures – declined 9.37 percent and outpatient procedures declined 6.28, according to a report by Wells Fargo. And this happened during a time when the number of most other medical procedures went up. Moreover, it was a continuation of a steady long-term decline in cardiovascular procedures.

Why the decline? Husten suggests four causes:

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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 US based non-profit that develops medical training 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 & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Breast Cancer Imaging Controversies Continue

The preventive mammogram, a long-time staple of medical imaging clinics, is increasingly under attack. And given the inconclusive evidence from researchers from both sides of the debate about the usefulness of preventive mammograms, the attacks won’t go away anytime soon.

In the latest issue of Radiology, proponents and opponents of preventive mammograms each ran an editorial.

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Attention Radiologists: Get Ready for ACOs by Taking the Lead

The very mention of “ACOs” can cause tremors through the medical imaging community, but it’s time for radiologists and other medical imaging professionals to prepare to transition to an ACO care model, said Ascendian Health Care Consulting’s Jef Williams and Shawn McKenzie at the recent AHRA annual meeting.

The Accountable Care Organization or ACO is the creation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed in 2010. It’s designed to improve patient care and bring down (or at least control the growth of) medical costs by bringing several types of medical organizations together to meet specific performance targets. Payment will move away from a fee-for-service-based model and toward an outcome-based model, leading physicians and other healthcare professionals to be less “siloed” and more coordinated with other healthcare workers in their efforts to care for patients.

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The Importance of Having a Medical Imaging Business Strategy

Developing a strategy for a medical imaging practice can be daunting, says Brian Baker, but it’s absolutely necessary for survival and growth in today’s medical marketplace.

Baker is the president of Regents Health Resources, a Tennessee-based medical imaging consulting firm. His comments on developing strategic plans were delivered at the recent AHRA in Dallas.

Baker likes to use the example of Intermountain Healthcare to demonstrate his points.

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Note to Medical Imaging Professionals: Play in the Sandbox Together

If cardiologists, radiologists, and other medical imaging professionals don’t play well in the sandbox together, the federal government will make them do so – or perhaps tear up the sandbox and build something of its own devising.

That’s the message of a recent issue of Health Imaging & IT. Ever-advancing technology may have been the bread and butter of medical imaging a decade ago, but now its cooperation.

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McKesson CVIS Revolutionizes a Hospital’s Medical Imaging

What can a CVIS do? “With Horizon Cardiology…I can instantly see everything I need from one reading station. As soon as I sign the report, it’s instantaneously in the electronic patient record,” says William Suarez, chief of pediatric cardiology and associate professor at Mercy Children’s Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. And for him, that was a huge change.

Before Mercy implemented the CVIS from McKesson, its pediatric cardiologists regularly dealt with damaged video cassettes, slow couriers, and difficulty comparing multi-modality images. The last problem was especially troublesome, for it made it difficult to compare images of children as they grew.

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Mixed Forecast for Compensation in Cardiology and Medical Imaging Professions

Common wisdom holds that specialists – like heart surgeons, ophthalmologists, and medical imaging professionals – are going to bear the brunt of healthcare reform payment redistribution.

No one really knows, however, how PPACA will impact healthcare reimbursement – or, for that matter, if PPACA will even survive.

Recent research reported by HealthImaging.com points in different directions. On the “medical imaging professionals will continue to see good revenues” side:

Outpatient medical imaging volume continues to increase
Return office visits to outpatient medical imaging clinics is growing steadily
Total patient encounters for cardiologists has increased 50 percent in the past 10 years

Continue Reading: Mixed Forecast for Compensation in Cardiology and Medical Imaging Professions