Medical Imaging Blog

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Winter = Time for a PACS

PACS, healthcare reform, supreme court Winter: the season of Christmas, snow-covered trees, sledding…and increased emergency room admissions due to slips and falls on ice and snow. Add to that car accidents and shoveling-related back injuries and the medical imaging professionals are going to have their hands full.

After one snowstorm in early 2011, for example, the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s radiology department performed 156 injury-related x-rays over two days, which was more than double their normal x-ray rate.

When temperatures fell into the 20’s after a few days of 35-degree highs, the resulting ice led to a swarm of accident victims flocking to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Mass.

Continue Reading: Winter = Time for a PACS

Understanding the Supreme Court’s Healthcare Reform Case

PACS, healthcare reform, supreme court Just about everyone in the healthcare world knows that the Supreme Court will take up the controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) sometime in March 2012, with a decision scheduled for June.

The issues at stake, however, are less well-known. Here is a very brief summary of the Supreme Court documents that show what the justices have to wrestle with (in no particular order):

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How an Effective Radiology Information System Improves Efficiency

Radiology information system - RISA comprehensive radiology information system (RIS) can make a medical imaging workplace much more efficient.

That’s one of the conclusions of Ramin Khorasani, a radiologist from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in a recent Journal of the American College of Radiology article.

Khorasani argues that articulating well thought-out imaging protocols can reduce unnecessary follow-up medical imaging by facilitating improvement in initial diagnoses. One key to good protocols, he says, is good IT – and that includes an RIS.

Khorasani makes a few specific recommendations for improving protocols:

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Is Prior Authorization of Medical Imaging a Good Way to Save Money?

Can prior authorization of medical imaging save money?$319 billion. That’s how much could be saved on healthcare costs if the government acted on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s (BCBSA) recent recommendations.

The problem: medical imaging would get squeezed.

BCBSA’s recommendations follow a by-now familiar pattern: 1) Replace fee-for-service reimbursement with outcome-based reimbursement, 2) Invest in primary care, and 3) Invest in preventative care.

The details, however, bring out the trouble for medical imaging. The recommendations use a partnership between Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and a radiology benefit management company as a model. The partnership relied on prior authorization from the benefit management to reduce the use of medical imaging.

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Echocardiography Saves Lives in Emergency Rooms

Echocardiography in the ERThe opening sentence of Wikipedia’s “Echocardiography” entry is “Not to be confused with electrocardiography.”

That’s for sure.

Echocardiography is a cardiac ultrasound that produces 2D or, increasingly, 3D real-time images of a heart. Moreover, an echocardiogram can analyze valve function, blood flow in and out of the heart, “communications” between the left and right sides of the heart, and other cardiac functions.

Electrocardiography, on the other hand, measures the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time.

Both procedures are important in modern-day cardiac care, but echocardiography is increasingly being used in emergency rooms to quickly assess patients experiencing some form of cardiac distress.

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Consolidation and Commoditization in Medical Imaging

Medical Imaging Tomorrow’s medical imaging practice will probably look much different from today’s. And it’s all because of economics.

That’s the conclusion of Eugene Lin, M.D., of the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle in a recent article in the American Journal of Roentgenology. The medical imaging field of today, with its variety of options for the new radiologist, will slowly disappear, predicts Lin.

Citing the probable rise of ACO’s and the ongoing effort to trim healthcare costs, Lin thinks that the following features will dominate the medical imaging market in 2020:

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What’s Hip: The Latest Medical Imaging Trends

Medical Imaging trends, PACS, RISIf you haven’t seen the results from Health Imaging’s latest “Top Trends” survey, here are the highlights:

  • Declining Revenues. This was the #1 business priority for physician group practices, imaging centers, and community hospitals. Cuts in Medicare and insurance company reimbursements are driving down revenues. The good news: many medical imaging practices are becoming more efficient, improving their marketing efforts, and adding new services to compensate.
  • Improving Customer Satisfaction. This was the #1 business priority for academic medical centers and multi-hospital organizations.
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Medical Imaging Confidence Could Use a Boost

medical Imaging confidence index, The Medical Imaging Confidence Index (MICI), sponsored by The MarkeTechGroup LLC and The Association for Medical Imaging Management, comes out of a quartely online survey of radiology department managers from around the country. The index ranges from zero – representing zero confidence in the medical imaging market – to 200. In general, scores below 50 are worrisome, scores around 100 reflect ambivalence, and scores above 150 represent high confidence.

Not surprisingly, many of the scores for 2011 have been on the lower end of the spectrum and don’t show signs of going up:

Category

2011 Q1

2011 Q2

2011 Q3
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Medical Imaging Technology Update

Medical Imaging technology, medical imaging newsHere 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, RSNA, McKessonMedical 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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