Merlina Trevino

Security event monitors, an emerging technology in security software, can help protect radiology departments from the increasing onslaught of network attacks, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Security event monitors, the latest advance in security software, can help defend radiology departments against the growing onslaught of network attacks, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Radiology departments need not fear irreversible compression of medical images, according to a Canadian review of the medical literature.

Help has arrived for radiologists who want to make the best use of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise integration profiles when selecting and implementing informatics technology. The IHE released a radiology-specific handbook at the SCAR meeting that guides readers in the use of IHE profiles, said Kevin O’Donnell, co-chair of the IHE radiology planning committee.

Data mining has the potential to revolutionize clinical information management. But while data mining is a hot topic in information technology circles, it has yet to make many forays into radiology. Only a few departments have taken the plunge.

The Society for Computer Applications in Radiology will celebrate its silver anniversary at this year's annual meeting in Orlando with a new look. In a move designed to reposition itself in the changing world of electronic imaging, the society will unveil a new tagline at the conference next month: Innovating Imaging Informatics.

Beginning next month, medical scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health will be asked to voluntarily submit final manuscripts describing their research to the PubMed Central online medical archive.

The amygdala, a brain structure critical in making judgments, is markedly smaller in cocaine addicts, according to a study conducted at Harvard Medical School. While the results are preliminary, they may indicate that reduced amygdala volumes predispose people to cocaine addiction.

Integration, interoperability, interconnectedness: "In" is in for PACS and informatics. The RSNA meeting promises to reveal a new world of integrated healthcare systems, PACS, and radiology information systems, all aiming to provide a single solution for data and imaging information management.

Subtle changes to imaging acquisition parameters can dramatically affect the accuracy of computer-aided detection systems, according to research conducted at the University of Maryland and the Baltimore VA Medical Center.

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative continued throughout 2004 to round out its blueprint for designing interoperable systems and products, creating new supplements and integration profiles. Radiology-centric portable data, nuclear medicine profiles, and several additions to the scheduled workflow profile topped the list. The IHE also tackled the electronic health record with the introduction of the cross-enterprise document-sharing integration profile.

Integrating a profusion of digital healthcare information systems is central to providing efficient, high-quality healthcare, and this need spans national boundaries. To address the increasingly global task, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative expanded to six new countries last year.

The electronic medical record provides an automated way to deal with the added complexity evaluators face as they attempt to measure not only what today’s medical residents know, but also how well they perform using that knowledge.

In an update to its Composite HealthCare System patient record, the Department of Defense Military Health System has moved away from an institution-centered electronic medical record and toward a more centralized model that focuses on the patient.

In its second survey of data warehouse use in healthcare organizations, the HIMSS Data Warehouse and Data Mining Special Interest Group reports that hospitals are branching out in the ways they use data repositories to improve their business operations.

When it comes to the daunting task of adopting an electronic medical record, healthcare facilities should identify their information needs before making an EMR purchase, according to a health information management consultant.

Although decision support alerts may help to reduce errors and improve efficiency, many physicians choose to ignore them, according to a study conducted at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Instead of scrounging for informatics training from grand rounds speakers or random presentations, residents at one medical center can now take advantage of an informatics-specific curriculum.

Imagine turning minutes of downtime during the workday into valuable CME credits. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have taken advantage of information technology to develop an electronic learning environment that provides radiological education on demand.

Researchers may be ready to set aside traditional pen and paper for performing data entry in large clinical trials. Not only do investigators prefer their digital counterparts, but those devices also lead to a reduction in data entry errors.

Subtle changes to imaging acquisition parameters can dramatically affect the accuracy of computer-aided detection systems. A pair of studies conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and the Baltimore VA Medical Center examined two such acquisition parameters: optimal CT reconstruction convolution kernels and the effect of slice thickness.

Because it is so closely correlated with human observer perception, a model based on just noticeable differences (JND) is better able to predict image quality than traditional quantitative measures, according to a Monday morning informatics presentation.

Perforation rates for a CT colonography, while still low and acceptable, are fast approaching those of traditional optical colonoscopy.

Imagine turning minutes of downtime during the workday into valuable CME credits. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have taken advantage of information technology to develop an electronic learning environment that provides radiological education on demand.

Eventually, everyone gets that 15 minutes of fame. This week, the spotlight turns on interventional radiologists, following Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice’s successful uterine fibroid embolization last Friday. The minimally invasive procedure was pioneered by IRs.

Massachusetts General Hospital clinicians faced a bumpy road to PACS implementation, but the road was made smoother for orthopedic physicians by the development of a joint radiology and orthopedics task force.

Storage is a hot topic in PACS. The best way to cover all your clinical and legal bases is to have two archives, according to Dr. Keith Dreyer, speaking at the Radiology into the 21st Century congress in Boston.

Storage is a hot topic in PACS. The best way to cover all your clinical and legal bases is to have two archives, according to Dr. Keith Dreyer, speaking at the Radiology into the 21st Century congress in Boston.