Heated debates are not restricted to political circles. One debate currently flourishing in the imaging informatics community is whether to go with single or multiple vendors when purchasing or replacing a RIS or PACS.
At first glance, the recent volley of vendor offerings called managed services looks like a reincarnation of the application service provider model popular a few years ago.
Radiologists who use imaging-related electronic record-keeping could qualify for some of the $19 billion in economic recovery money set aside for electronic health record conversion if they meet the federal government’s definition of “meaningful use” for their records. More »
Despite a dismal start to 2009, most U.S. hospital radiology administrators expect restrictions against capital acquisitions to ease, giving them a chance to address their most pressing needs and acquire diagnostic imaging equipment later this year. More »
Health officials in the U.K. have added an extra hurdle for patients who wish not to be part of a large-scale electronic medical records program, requiring them to appear in person to explain why they want to opt out of the system. More »
The Obama administration has sent to Congress a budget that relies on radiology benefit managers to cut imaging utilization costs, mirroring a recommendation issued last summer by the Government Accountability Office. Just like that recommendation did, the budget proposal drew criticism from imaging... More »
The $1.1 billion in the economic stimulus plan committed to comparative effectiveness research may be good for weighing the relative merits of medical technologies, but it could slow their adoption and lead to European-style rationing, according to Obama administration critics. More »
At a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, Republican senators questioned whether hefty expenditures for healthcare informatics in the Obama administration’s $825 billion stimulus package will actually help jumpstart the economy. More »
A five-year hospital audit showed PACS use leads to sustained improvements in productivity and reporting times, according to a recent U.K. study. More »
Gains attributed directly to healthcare IT are difficult to quantify. A large U.K. study that recently attempted to assess the impact of PACS and computerized physician order entry on clinical and operational efficiencies within the National Health System found each component associated with both... More »
Finding an acceptable way to facilitate distance learning can be a challenge, especially for multicenter residency programs. These programs require residents to rotate through offsite locations, meaning they are frequently unavailable to attend conferences held at the central site. More »
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act safeguards patient personal health information, but it also tends to complicate medical research by inhibiting access to medical records necessary to develop public health measures. More »
In the absence of satisfactory 3D viewers, most volumetric medical data is currently viewed as stacks of 2D slices. Yet little research has been conducted on stack mode viewing techniques. More »
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act safeguards patient personal health information, but it also tends to complicate medical research by inhibiting access to medical records necessary to develop public health measures. More »
Precise delineation of relevant anatomical structures is necessary for accurate treatment planning and radiation therapy. Yet segmentation in CT images of internal features like the diaphragm can be a difficult problem. More »
Social networking applications on the Internet, like Facebook and MySpace, exist mainly for students and the forlorn. Professionals tend to use systems such as LinkedIn, Research Crossroads, and InnoCentive. But scientists and medical researchers have lacked an efficient computer-based expertise... More »
Susceptibility-weighted MR imaging provides high-resolution, distortion-free blood oxygen level-dependent data for assessment of cerebral veins, blood products, and brain lesions. Currently, however, reconstruction of susceptibility-weighted imaging data is not implemented on all MR systems. More »
A recent advisory by the FDA urging breast imaging facilities to ensure compatibility between full-field digital mammography systems and PACS exposed an ongoing problem: Interoperability issues persist as some vendors fail to comply with healthcare digital imaging standards. More »
Compression artifacts on thin sections are greater than on thick sections in JPEG 2000 compressed chest CT images, according to a new study from Korea. More »
