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Relying on patient- or tumor-specific characteristic to recommend pre-operative MRI could result in missed cancers.

Do Not Base Pre-Operative MRI Recommendations on Patient or Tumor Traits

Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan: July 3, 2020

Point-of-Care Ultrasound and COVID-19, Plus MRI and Schizophrenia, Pediatric Cancer, and Alzheimer's

In order to address the steep learning curve with abbreviated breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Emily Conant, M.D., emphasized during 

the importance of radiologists working with technologists to bolster efficiency.

“MR can be a very profitable and very obviously important study but … it’s a team approach on how to do this efficiently. Get the IVs done by a whole other group outside of the room, not the technologists who are finishing scanning a prior patient. Make sure the patient understands the positioning and the need to be still, etc. Explain it all to her and be prompt in terms of getting her off the table when the (imaging) reconstructions are done,” advised Dr. Conant, a professor emeritus with the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

“Have a team working on this. That is so important in an MR suite, particularly right now. I know we're backlogged, as I said, from post-COVID resurgence (of imaging volume), and we want to be efficient.”

Stamatia Destounis, M.D., emphasized the importance of more research on abbreviated breast MRI to elucidate and standardize the protocol, which would facilitate improved clarity with reimbursement.

“I think it’s really hard to understand where to go from here because we have such a variability within our global community on (abbreviated breast MRI),” added Dr. Destounis, the managing partner of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, N.Y., and the chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission

A driving focus of future research should be continuing to determine what patient populations will receive the most benefit from abbreviated breast MRI, according to Habib Rahbar, M.D. He noted 

 that improved imaging biomarkers may bolster risk stratification and suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially improve efficiency with abbreviated breast MRI.

“We're really at the precipice of getting to much more individualized, personalized screening and making sure we're applying the right technologies to the right women and decreasing not just mortality, but the morbidity associated with more aggressive treatments. There's so much going on in breast cancer care, and it's really exciting for imaging to be a big part of it,” added Dr. Rahbar, a professor and executive vice chair of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “

The Reading Room Podcast: Current and Emerging Insights on Abbreviated Breast MRI, Part 1

The Reading Room Podcast: Current and Emerging Insights on Abbreviated Breast MRI, Part 2

Abbreviated MRI and Contrast-Enhanced Mammography Provide Fourfold Higher Cancer Detection than Breast Ultrasound

For more insights from Dr. Destounis, Dr. Conant and Dr. Rahbar, listen below or 

In the last of a three-part podcast episode, Stamatia Destounis, MD, Emily Conant, MD and Habib Rahbar, MD, share additional insights on practical considerations and potential challenges in integrating abbreviated breast MRI into clinical practice, and offer their thoughts on future research directions.

The Reading Room Podcast: Current and Emerging Insights on Abbreviated Breast MRI, Part 3

As a neuroradiologist and a pilot, Emanuel Kanal, M.D., noted that one of the safety principles he learned from the aviation field and has applied with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety is the notion that an emergency situation is a statistical inevitability. Accordingly, one must have a proactive plan for addressing the emergency before it occurs, emphasized Dr. Kanal during a 

“ … What do you do when communication goes down and you're in the middle of a scan. Do you stop the scan? Do you complete the scan? What does the boots on the ground (person) do if they lost communication? What was the last command given? What was the last thing happening? Am I supposed to continue? That's a critical part of remote MR scanning and the standard operating procedure,” emphasized Dr. Kanal, chief of the Division of Emergency Radiology and director of Magnetic Resonance Services with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Noting the importance of defined roles and responsibilities with remote MRI safety, Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE, rejected the commonly espoused platitude that MRI safety is everyone’s responsibility.

“No, it’s not. The notion that this is some kind of collective group project that we're all working on is one of the greatest disservices that we can do to MRI safety,” posits Gilk, the founder of Gilk Radiology Consultants, a senior vice president of RADIOLOGY-Planning, and a board member of the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS).

Gilk maintained that proactive precision with individual scopes of responsibilities and checklists is critical to bolstering safety with remote MRI scanning.

“It is in the act of defining individual roles, duties, responsibilities, expectations, and crystalizing that that we begin to build workflows that don't have gaps,” noted Gilk.

The Reading Room Podcast: A Closer Look at Remote MRI Safety, Part 1

The Reading Room Podcast: A Closer Look at Remote MRI Safety, Part 2

MRI Safety: A Closer Look at Key Factors in Managing Radiofrequency Exposure

For more insights from Emanuel Kanal, MD and Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE, listen below or 

In the third of a three-part podcast episode, Emanuel Kanal, M.D. and Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE, discuss strategies for maintaining the integrity of time-out procedures and communication with remote MRI scanning.

The Reading Room Podcast: A Closer Look at Remote MRI Safety, Part 3

When one considers the variety of responsibilities of an on-site magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologist, Emanuel Kanal, M.D., noted in a 

 that the availability of a remote MRI technologist actually may enhance MRI safety.

“Who today is in charge of overseeing that adverse event? The technologist. … Who is responsible for screening the patient? The technologist. Who is responsible for injecting them? The technologist. Who is responsible for answering the phones? The technologist,” noted Dr. Kanal, the chief of the Division of Emergency Radiology and director of Magnetic Resonance Services with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“ … In so many of our sites, the MR technologist is the only line of defense. They do everything. We hold them responsible for every single thing that has to do with safety in that environment. And for the first time, we just gave them an assistant.”

Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE, added that clearly defined roles for the remote MRI technician and the on-site individual working with the patient may “reduce the frequency and severity” of adverse events.

“Whether it's an adverse reaction to contrast, whether it's a projectile event, whether it's a quench, in all of those situations, we're essentially in clean-up mode, right? I think one of the things that's really interesting is the potential that by actively managing patients and screening and the physical environment, as Dr. Kanal was describing, with specialization right, one individual is specialized to operating the scanner safely and effectively, and one individual is specialized in managing the environment and the individuals who operate within it,” noted Gilk, the founder of Gilk Radiology Consultants, a senior vice president of RADIOLOGY-Planning, and a board member of the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS).

Essential Keys to MRI Safety in the Age of Advanced Diagnostics

For more insights from Emanuel Kanal, MD and Tobias Gilk, listen below or 

In the second of a multi-part podcast episode, Emanuel Kanal, M.D. and Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE, share their perspectives on remote MRI safety protocols for ensuring screening accuracy and adherence to conditional implant guidelines as well as a rapid and effective response to adverse events. 

For breast cancer detection, Habib Rahbar, M.D., said it’s well established in the literature that vascular-based studies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) provide more optimal sensitivity in comparison to X-ray based or anatomic-based studies. During a recent 

, Dr. Rahbar noted tradeoffs between breast MRI and CEM.

“We know that CEM or contrast enhanced mammography is probably a little bit more specific than MRI (with a) little fewer false positives, but at a cost of a little bit of a sensitivity hit. That's probably due to the fact that the conspicuity of some of the lesions is not quite as dramatic on CEM,” maintained Dr. Rahbar, a professor and executive vice chair of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“ … (For an additional breast cancer screening test), I still prefer MRI because I think it's the best tool that we have. But CEM and other contrast-based approaches have a real role too, because there could potentially be improved access and might be cheaper for us to implement in some areas as well.”

, Stamatia Destounis, M.D., noted that a standardized protocol for abbreviated breast MRI remains elusive. While Emily Conant, M.D., acknowledged studies that shows T2-weighted MRI impacts outcomes less than five percent of the time, all of the panelists emphasized the value of T2-weighted imaging for increasing the specificity of abbreviated breast MRI.

While emphasizing “remarkable” cancer detection with abbreviated breast MRI, standardized reimbursement will likely be the key driver for implementation, according to Dr. Conant, a professor emeritus with the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. However, Dr. Destounis expressed concern that evaluation of abbreviated breast MRI for CPT coding may trigger a negative re-evaluation of full breast MRI.

“The concern is that this may turn out to be kind of a hit all across the board for many of us that have breast MRI practices in an outpatient, private setting. And I can tell you it's not a money maker. We're just breaking even because we don't get the high reimbursement from that full (breast MRI) protocol. So I think that there's some concern there about what a new CPT code may look like for us,” noted Dr. Destounis, the managing partner of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, and chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission.

Possible Real-Time Adaptive Approach to Breast MRI Suggests ‘New Era’ of AI-Directed MRI

In the second part of a multi-part podcast episode, Stamatia Destounis, MD, Emily Conant, MD and Habib Rahbar, MD, discuss key sequences for abbreviated breast MRI and how it stacks up to other breast cancer screening modalities. 

While emphasizing the importance of site-specific standard operating procedures (SOPs) with remote magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety, Emanuel Kanal, M.D., said on a 

 that it is critical to define will be stepping into the shoes and role of the traditionally on-site MRI technologist.

“The most knowledgeable person about MR safety in general is the MR technologist. They're worth their weight in gold. They're the ones that that guard the site. They oversee the site. They protect the patient, health-care practitioners, the site itself and their interests. They're the most knowledgeable, almost across the board, and they've been removed from the site,” pointed out Dr. Kanal, chief of the Division of Emergency Radiology and director of Magnetic Resonance Services with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“ … Now we’re facing the situation with the full remote operation clinical scanning … which is really going to necessitate that we figure out who that person is, what training or competencies we expect that person to have, how that new person plugs into a workflow, and as Dr. Kanal described, situational responsibility (and) situational authority in that environment,” added Tobias Gilk, the founder of Gilk Radiology Consultants, a senior vice president of RADIOLOGY-Planning, and a board member of the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS).

Dr. Kanal added that remote MRI scanning currently isn’t addressed in the Manual on MR Safety from the American College of Radiology (ACR). However, Dr. Kanal noted there will a section on remote MRI safety at the upcoming Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference (Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2025) that he will be moderating as well as forthcoming announcements from the ABMRS.

FDA Clears Remote Scanning Software with MRI, CT and PET Capabilities

Kanal E. Divided liability remote MR scanning. 

In the first of a multi-part podcast episode, Emanuel Kanal, MD and Tobias Gilk share their insights and perspectives on remote MRI safety.

Pointing out that there has been a fair amount of “bloat” in many magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols over the years, Habib Rahbar, M.D., said in a 

 that abbreviated breast MRI represents a paradigm shift away from getting as many images as possible to paring down to the most essential sequences for review.

“ … Magnet time is increasingly important. MRI demands are extremely important. It's expensive. You know, time is money. Access to patients is really important. What we've learned is all those additional series probably aren't that valuable for the vast majority of patients, and that's really, overall, the overarching concept around abbreviated MRI to me,” noted Dr. Rahbar, a professor and executive vice chair of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Stamatia Destounis, M.D., the chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission, said she started utilizing abbreviated breast MRI in 2000, and has worked with colleagues over the years to reduce breast MRI exams from 27 minutes to 12 to 13 minutes.

“If you look at the multiple publications on abbreviated MR (with) some of them comparing even to full MR, the sensitivity is really pretty good, so I think there's a lot of room to skinny down our protocols to abbreviated or ultrafast (MRI), and still maintain our very good cancer detection rate,” added Emily Conant, M.D., a professor emeritus with the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Dr. Destounis concurred, noting that abbreviated breast MRI provides more of an optimal balance of sensitivity for breast cancer detection and increased patient comfort.

“Hands down, if you can do it, (MRI is) the best test, whether it's abbreviated or full protocol, but everyone is more interested in the abbreviated protocol for patient comfort, and the ability for the patient to tolerate it,” emphasized Dr. Destounis, the Managing Partner of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York.

Study: Abbreviated Breast MRI Offers Equivalent Accuracy to mpMRI for Women with Dense Breasts

Can Abbreviated Breast MRI Have an Impact in Assessing Post-Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response?

In the first of a multi-part podcast episode, Stamatia Destounis, MD, Emily Conant, MD and Habib Rahbar, MD, share their insights on the role of abbreviated breast MRI in breast screening.

COVID-19 halted all cancer screening services at the beginning of the pandemic, and slowly those scans have become more and more available -- but, not necessarily for everyone.

In many instances, racial and minority patients continue to face the same healthcare disparities that made it difficult for them to access the services at the outset. Now, the fear and trepidation associated with the pandemic are layered on top. 

Despite these difficulties, there are things healthcare institutions and providers can do to help. In this episode of 

 spoke with Shalmon Kalnicki, M.D., chair of radiation and oncology at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine about the challenges these patients continue to face with cancer screenings. Not only did he share with us how COVID-19 has impacted this existing problem, but he also outlined the steps institutions can take to improve this situation.


In this podcast episode, Dr. Shalom Kalnicki, from Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the disparities minority patients face with cancer screenings and what can be done to increase access during the pandemic.

The Reading Room: Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Cancer Screenings, and COVID-19

Expanded capabilities with the body composition analysis software include automated segmentation of over 140 muscles, skeletal and organ structures from a 15–20-minute MRI.

Springbok Analytics Unveils Rapid MRI-Derived Precision Body Composition Analysis

Offering prospective SNR calculation derived from prescribed slices, the SNR Calculator reportedly facilitates a higher degree of accuracy with quantitative SNR values beyond that of calculators from device manufacturers.

ScanLab Unveils New Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) Calculator for MRI

Abbreviated biparametric MRI demonstrated nearly equivalent detection rates for clinically significant and clinically insignificant prostate cancer as multiparametric MRI, according to research involving 22 centers in 12 countries.

Multicenter Study Finds Abbreviated MRI Non-Inferior to mpMRI for csPCa Detection

For HER2-positive breast cancer patients with radiologic complete response on breast MRI after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), the absence of calcifications was associated with over a 13 percent higher positive predictive value (PPV) for pathologic complete response (pCR).



Post-NAC Breast MRI Without Calcifications Associated with 65 Percent Higher Likelihood of Pathologic Complete Response

In a 10-study meta-analysis examining the use of whole-body MRI for asymptomatic individuals, researchers noted a pooled cancer detection rate of 1.57 percent.

New Meta-Analysis Says Whole-Body MRI ‘Lacks Significant Diagnostic Yield’

Welcome to Diagnostic Imaging’s Weekly Scan, which offers an opportunity to catch up on the most well-viewed radiology content of the past week.

While there has been a fair amount of hype about whole-body MRI, a 

 found the modality had a pooled cancer detection rate of 1.57 percent in asymptomatic individuals. The meta-analysis authors also noted that many of the reviewed studies had incomplete data with respect to follow-up and diagnostic outcomes.

While maintaining that artificial intelligence (AI) for breast imaging is at an “infancy” stage, Zeeshan Shah, M.D., noted in a recent 

a pathway where AI has increased capability of pinpointing negative mammography exams

, enabling radiologists to spend significantly more time on cases that are more ambiguous and concerning.

In other breast imaging news, a new study published in the 

 compared AI software to radiologist interpretation for digital mammography (DM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). The researchers found that 

AI offered comparable negative predictive value (NPV) but significantly higher recall rates and false positive results as well

In a cohort of over 8,700 current and former smokers, the authors of a new study in 

found that coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring derived from non-gated low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans demonstrated significant capability for 

predicting long-term cardiovascular disease mortality up to 25 years

, pediatric cardiologist Takeshi Tsuda discussed 

integrated wall stress, a product of peak systolic wall stress (PS-WS) calculated with M-mode echocardiography as well as heart rate

. Citing recently published research, Dr. Tsuda said integrated wall stress could be a key marker of pre-clinical cardiomyopathy in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Catch up on the top radiology content of the past week.

Diagnostic Imaging’s Weekly Scan: August 31 — September 6

Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan: August 31 — September 6

With the end of the summer upon us, we take a look back at the most well-viewed breast imaging content of the last three months for 

, researchers found that the addition of contrast-enhanced mammography to digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) more than doubled the cancer yield per 1,000 women in comparison to DBT alone.

In a three-part podcast this summer, leading breast radiologists discussed 

the role of abbreviated breast MRI in breast cancer screening

In August, Amy Patel, MD, discussed new research findings that revealed a 

45 percent higher likelihood of mammography screening among women with Medicaid in Missouri

 due to expanded mammography coverage in the state. Here is a clip from the interview.

 revealed that mammography detected 82 percent of pregnancy-associated breast cancer in a cohort of women with a high prevalence of extremely dense breasts.

recently published study involving over 68,000 women

, researchers found that White women may be 11 times more likely than Black women to be eligible for supplemental breast cancer screening coverage in Pennsylvania.

For more insights, watch the video below.

From emerging research on disparities in breast cancer screening to the promising combination of contrast-enhanced mammography with DBT and a three-part podcast on abbreviated breast MRI, here is a look back at the most well-reviewed breast imaging content of the summer.

Diagnostic Imaging’s Top Five Breast Imaging Content: Summer 2025 

’s review of the top breast imaging content for the summer of 2025.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and prostate-specific membrane-antigen positron emission tomography (PSMA PET) both have limitations with respect to the detection of seminal vesicle invasion (SVI) in prostate cancer, noted Wayne Brisbane, M.D., in a recent interview.

“One of the issues is (MRI) is not super sensitive so if there's a small amount of seminal vesicle invasion, it might not be picked up, especially if the tumor volume is very small. But it's still important because we would risk adjust those patients and change their treatment paradigms,” noted Dr. Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). “ … With PSMA, there (are) other challenges. While molecular imaging is very easy to interpret, there is less spatial resolution between the prostate and the seminal vesicle so interpreting seminal vesicle invasion with PSMA and MRI can be challenging.”

However, in a recent lecture at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting, Dr. Brisbane discussed key findings from a new study examining the use of the MRI-based artificial intelligence (AI) software Unfold AI (Avenda Health) for detecting SVI in patients with 

In an initial cohort of 147 men who underwent radical prostatectomy (with a 17 percent incidence of SVI), the researchers found that the AI software provided 92 percent sensitivity, 89 percent specificity and a 95 percent area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), 15 percent higher than the AUC for MRI alone (80 percent).

“(This) AI (software) was initially trained on (prostate) tumor volume but has found really impressive accuracy for predicting cancers coming out of the prostate or into the seminal vesicles,” noted Dr. Brisbane.

Study: PSMA PET/CT More Advantageous than MRI for Locoregional Staging of Prostate Cancer

Researchers Unveil PI-QUAL v2 for Prostate MRI Quality Assessments

Study Shows PET MRI Offers Better Detection of Localized Prostate Cancer than mpMRI

For more insights from Dr. Brisbane, watch the video below.

Wayne Brisbane, MD, discusses new research, presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) conference, which showed the benefits of the MRI-based Unfold AI software in detecting seminal vesicle invasion (SVI) in prostate cancer.

Study: MRI-Based AI Enhances Detection of Seminal Vesicle Invasion in Prostate Cancer

1. Brisbane W, Priester A, Mota SM, et al. Prediction of seminal vesicle invasion using artificial intelligence prostate cancer risk mapping. 

https://doi.org/10.1097/01.JU.0001109868.09667.98.20

 . Presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting April 26-29, 2025, Las Vegas.

In a recent interview, Wayne Brisbane, M.D., discussed new research, presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) conference, which revealed a 15 percent higher AUC for an emerging AI software in detecting seminal vesicle invasion (SVI) in comparison to prostate MRI alone.

There is significant variability with respect to predicting postoperative recurrence risk in pediatric patients who undergo surgery for gliomas, which contributes to considerable burden and stress for patients and their families. With this in mind, Benjamin Kann, M.D., and his colleagues developed a temporal deep learning model that evaluates longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to ascertain the risk of pediatric glioma recurrence.

In a new study, published earlier today in 

, Dr. Kann and his colleagues found that the model’s average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for predicting one-year event-free survival (EFS) with longitudinal MRI assessment was 80.6 percent in contrast to 50.3 percent for single MRI scan assessment.

In a recent interview, Dr. Kann said the temporal deep learning model may provide a viable option for synthesizing current and previous imaging at the point of care.

In a recent interview, Benjamin Kann, M.D., discussed the use of an emerging AI model that can assess longitudinal MR imaging to help predict postoperative recurrence risk for gliomas in pediatric patients.

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