The hottest trend in interventional radiology is also its coldest. Improved technology and growing clinical experience have moved cryoablation into mainstream IR practice.

Two recent studies predict that computer-aided diagnosis schemes will likely be incorporated into PACS in the future.

An effort 10 years ago to delay the oral boards by a year met with resistance from fellowship directors and failed. A recent proposal to delay the boards by two years is again being met with opposition, mainly from residents. Radiology is the only medical specialty that continues to hold its oral exams in the last year of residency.

German researchers have introduced a 7T MRI protocol that allows visualization of all relevant anatomic structures and the most common pathologies of the knee. Seven-T may help imagers overcome 1.5T's inadequacy in small structures like articular cartilage.

Eighteen months ago, Dr. David Dowe of Atlantic Medical Imaging in New Jersey was attending a lecture by Dr. Jack Ziffer of Miami Baptist on the challenges of chest pain workups in the emergency setting.

A new web-based automated mail and phone system that helps medical secretaries remind women to schedule a mammogram could boost breast cancer screening rates, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

The removal of lesions 6 mm or greater found by CT colonography screening is more cost-effective, safer, and just as clinically effective as colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy, according to a study in the June 1 issue of Cancer.

When PACS were first introduced, the vendor supplied the whole system, from the back-end servers to the front-end diagnostic workstations. Over time, the buyers of these systems realized that none of these PACS vendors actually manufactured the computers and monitors; they just resold them, often at huge markups.

Researchers at the University of Utah have developed a vendor-neutral teaching file system that offers a means by which cases can automatically be plucked from PACS without requiring the usual modification of PACS configuration.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have developed a shareware nuclear medicine PACS software package that includes a display for fused PET/CT studies. It is freely available on the Internet, according to a web-exclusive article in the June issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Cosmetic medicine is bringing a fresh face to interventional radiology with new minimally invasive applications and opportunities to profit from this highly lucrative field.

PACS offers an electronic alternative to using a conventional manual or analog method of storing photographic images for interventional radiologists working with patients who have lower extremity venous insufficiency, according to a study in the April Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

With the incidence of arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases set to double in the next two decades, clinicians will welcome new quantitative 3T MRI strategies for assessing cartilage and chondral lesions.

A small study found a significantly higher rate of transcription errors in women compared with men using a commercial voice recognition application. Causes of the discrepancy may include the differences in the volume and frequency of speech between sexes or more fundamental differences in how the application was tested at time of development.

Merge upgrades mammo workstation for EUCivco refines ultrasound needle systems

Siemens Medical Solutions is installing its dual-source CT in new, uncharted territory -- hospital departments the company has never before approached -- and is finding a welcome reception for the clinically versatile platform.

Despite their different practice and regulatory landscapes, Canadian and U.S. interventional radiologists face the same reality: They need more public exposure.

Philips Medical Systems is developing software that will optimize and analyze PET brain images for signs of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. An early version of the prototype will soon be evaluated by researchers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, who are working with Philips’ scientists to evolve the technology into a clinically useful tool.

Fujifilm embraces green movementTurkish facilities install RamSoft PACS

GE takes over ultrasound CAD productCarestream Health signs high-profile IT clients