In Review - News from the 2004 Meeting of the RSNA

Cardiologists sneak press statement into meeting

Solicitor for ACC issues press release blasting speaker who examines self-referral patterns

By: C.P Kaiser and James Brice

Following Dr. David Levin's refresher course on self-referral, a woman outside the room asked attendees if they "wanted to hear the other side." She then handed out a press release from the Physicians for Patient-Centered Imaging, a coalition of 17 medical groups formed by the American College of Cardiology. The handout criticized Levin for conducting a campaign that positions radiologists as the only appropriate imaging providers.

The unsanctioned protest conducted at McCormick Place during the RSNA meeting surprised association officials. RSNA assistant executive director Roberta Arnold could not remember anything comparable in her 21 years with the organization.

"It was inappropriate to interject this type of advocacy into an educational meeting," she said.

But ACC spokesperson Sheila Strand defended the action after the meeting.

"We all have free speech in the United States," she said.

The PPCI statement accuses Levin of orchestrating a power grab for radiologists by seizing applications that have shifted to cardiologists, surgeons, urologists, oncologists, ob/gyns, and other specialists.

"Refinements in imaging technology have allowed the migration from invasive tests performed in hospitals to less invasive and more accurate diagnostic tools and image-guided therapy performed by professionals with organ- and disease-specific expertise," it said.

The PPCI statement claimed that Levin's self-referral research is motivated by self-interest on the part of all radiologists and that loss of market share is the key factor driving the radiologists' campaign. In contrast, the statement continued, in-office imaging performed by nonradiologists is patient-centered, value-added care that offers Medicare patients access to essential and timely imaging.

The incident suggests to Levin that his research is getting under the cardiologists' skin.

"They're on the defensive," he told Diagnostic Imaging. "As if a woman from the ACC can distribute propaganda at the RSNA meeting and think she'll find sympathetic ears."