PET/CT is significantly more accurate than CT alone, PET alone, and side-by-side CT and PET when assessing the TNM stage of different malignant diseases. This diagnostic advantage translates into treatment plan changes in a substantial number of patients, according to a report at the 2004 RSNA meeting by Dr. Gerald Antoch and colleagues at University Hospital Essen in Germany.

The 2004 RSNA meeting was the first in years that held something for everyone in every modality and every product class.

Dual x-ray absorptiometry remains the standard-bearer for bone mineral density measurement, but routine chest x-rays and abdominal CT can provide early warning signs of osteoporosis in postmenopausal patients.

A more stressful examination is hard to imagine. The patient is a star performer insured by his soccer club for Euro 60 million, but a suspected groin strain might force him to miss the Champions' League final in two weeks. The club's physicians call the radiology department every five minutes, while dozens of reporters and paparazzi line up outside the hospital, desperate for a scrap of news or photographic evidence of the damaged body part.

Crohn's disease can involve any part of the gastroenteric tract but most often affects the distal ileum and colon. It is characterized by chronic inflammation that extends through all layers of the intestinal wall and involves both mesentery and regional lymph nodes.

Digital mammography has so much to offer that it might, almost, overcome the fact that it has yet to prove clinical superiority over screen-film mammography. Many users have, in fact, already decided that digital is worth its higher cost-about 40% of all mammography systems sold in the first half of 2004 were digital.

Digital mammography integrated with PACS has numerous advantages over screen-film mammography when it comes to image storage, transmission, archiving, and consultation, according to a study conducted at Cottage Health System in Santa Barbara, CA. But those benefits come at a cost in time and productivity.

In this era of robust information technology, systems should be improved to address the problems of human error in healthcare delivery, according to a participant in an e-session at the HIMSS meeting Wednesday. At the same time, solutions must be found for the critical problems of productivity in hospitals.

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.

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.

Agfa HealthCare announced that The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD, has chosen Agfa’s IMPAX™ PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System).

Agfa HealthCare, a leader in medical image and information management, and MEDITECH, a leader in healthcare information systems, today announces the successful integration of Agfa’s IMPAXTM PACS system with MEDITECH’s Enterprise Medical Record (EMR) at Exeter Hospital (Exeter, NH).

Agfa HealthCare announces a partnership with Maine Medical Center of Portland, ME, in a clinical trial agreement to implement and integrate the IMPAXTM RIS (Radiology Information System) V5.4.1 and TalkStationTM V3.0 speech recognition solution with their existing Agfa IMPAX PACS (Picture Archiving Communications System) for unified, streamlined radiology workflow. The implementation is expected to be complete by June 2005.

Agfa HealthCare announced the implementation of its IMPAXTM RIS and TalkStationTM speech recognition system, which was integrated with its existing IMPAX PACS solution at Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) in Portsmouth, Ohio in October 2004. As a result, SOMC experienced significant workflow and report turnaround improvements after only three months. One of the major factors in SOMC’s productivity improvements was the adoption of TalkStation for speech recognition and report generation, which has helped reduce report turnaround time from approximately 10 hours to less than two hours.

The success of PACS is not in dispute. One-half of all U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS database either have PACS installed or are in the process of implementation.

Men between the ages of 65 and 75 who have ever smoked now have the government’s stamp of approval for a one-time abdominal aortic aneurysm ultrasound screening. Interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons praise the move but want women and nonsmoking men to have the same imprimatur.

Multisite PACS/RIS/HIS linkage among a group of London hospitals has increased radiological reporting efficiency considerably. But realizing these gains has required much more than simply integrating the software.

The imaging data generated in a typical episode of patient care is too much and generally too complex for radiologists to manage unassisted. Harnessing this information and converting it into better health outcomes is the objective of PACS developers, who think that computerized protocols for image presentation will help break the logjam.

Using saline perfusion to boost the radio-frequency ablation of liver tumors is feasible and safe, according to Italian researchers. They found caveats to its use, however.

A new dedicated MR scanner is expected to arrive in February. Esaote’s G-Scan, featuring a tilting table that takes the patient from supine to standing, is being prepped to enter the European market. The company, a member of the Bracco group based in Genoa, Italy, will bring the system to the U.S., but not in the near future.