Medical Imaging Blog

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Radiology Information Systems Among Solutions Easing Radiologist Challenges In 2012

No One Said Change Would Be EasySince 1965, when Medicare was passed into law, debate has raged about a citizen’s right to health access, fairness, efficiency, cost, choice, value and quality. Every generation since has seen both market and governmental forces issue mandates which have either increased or decreased pressure for change within the healthcare industry. Reimbursements have influenced a large part of the debate. Today, radiologists are feeling the pain.

Solutions including automated benchmarking services and Radiology Information Systems (RIS) have helped radiology departments improve their performance, manage change and achieve success – but there is a still a long way yet to go.

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Join McKesson Medical Imaging at ACC 2012 Cardio Science & Expo

McKesson Medical Imaging at ACC.12For over 60 years, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) has been renowned for its dedication to lifelong learning. Their Annual Scientific Session and Expo, being held this year in Chicago on March 24th-26th, is due once again to be the premiere cardiovascular educational occasion of the year.

You’ll hear from some of the top leaders in cardiology – including several members of the McKesson Medical Imaging team – and learn about the latest advances in pharmaceuticals, imaging, medical devices, medical imaging software, electronic health record (EHR) technologies and the services you need to provide high-quality patient care.

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Voice Recognition Software in Medical Imaging: The Latest

pacs ris collaboration Say it’s so! That is, say that voice recognition technology is developed enough for doctors, nurses, and medical imaging professionals to use it effectively.

Today’s medical imaging professionals take electronic health records and other digital technologies for granted and with recent advances to technology and capabilities, can high-quality voice recognition be far behind?

It’s mostly a matter of size and processing power. Medical imaging professionals could have the processing power they need to translate their dictation to 99 percent accurate written prose – but it’s more than a bit cumbersome to put the latest IBM supercomputer in a breast pocket.

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PACS = Collaboration = Better Care

pacs ris collaboration

A lot has been said about the ability of picture archiving communications systems (PACS) to improve efficiency of radiology and other medical imaging professionals. But a PACS can also be a tool for radiologists and other medical imaging professionals to help have a better impact on patient care.

With PACS, radiologists and other medical imaging professionals can easily access and analyze an image simultaneously – whether they are in front of the same monitor or different screens. Thus, consultation and collaboration becomes much easier. Moreover, PACS enables radiologists to record their observations and interpretations on the system, making them available when that image is viewed again.

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Medical Imaging in ER’s: An Upward Trend

medical imaging in the ERWe’ve all heard the bad news about medical imaging: growing commoditization, shrinking reimbursements, smaller imaging budgets, and greater-than-ever expectations of medical imaging professionals.

So here’s some good news. Emergency rooms across the country are using more medical imaging than ever.

An article in the October issue of The Journal of the American College of Radiology reports the results of a study of Medicare Part B data from 2000 to 2008. Here are the highlights.

  • Overall utilization of medical imaging went from 281.0 per 1000 beneficiaries to 450.4 – a jump of 60 percent.
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The Future of Nuclear Medical Imaging is Up in the Air

PACS, healthcare reform, supreme court Professionals in nuclear medical imaging want to plan for the future. But the uncertainties around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and other prospective regulatory changes are not providing a clear path.

That was a big part of William VanDecker’s message to the attendees of this year’s American Society of Nuclear Cardiology meeting on September 9 (As summarized in an a September article in HealthImaging).  VanDecker is a Professor of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia who specializes in cardiovascular imaging.

However, according to VanDecker, some future trends are clear:

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PACS + Cloud Computing = A Win for Small Healthcare Organizations

PACS, healthcare reform, supreme court For those not familiar with cloud computing – and who may be wondering what all the fuss is about – here’s a brief tutorial. The traditional way of gaining reliable access to a program is to install it on your computer. You want to use a spread sheet? Simple: buy Excel, insert the disk (or initiate the download), wait a bit, and – presto – you have a spreadsheet available 24/7.

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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.

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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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