From a transactions perspective, 2010 was marked by a frenzy of imaging-center acquisitions on the part of hospitals. A number of factors came together to create the perfect storm of a buyer’s market for imaging centers, including uncertainty surrounding health-care reform and the opportunity for cash-strapped hospitals to augment the bottom line

It’s a challenge faced by hospitals and imaging centers alike: Upon implementing a new piece of imaging technology and under pressure to maximize utilization as quickly as possible, raising awareness among the patients most likely to take advantage of that technology becomes critical. This also represents a messaging challenge: How do you most

Since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act went into effect in February 2010, regulations regarding health-care data security have become more stringent than ever before. For instance, the DHHS secretary is required to publish the names of covered entities that have experienced any data breach involving

There are two major ways that a physician ends up in court, sued for malpractice: first, by providing care in a negligent manner; second, by failing to inform the patient properly. While radiologists are not exempt from the former problem, they have largely been shielded from the latter because the job of communicating findings has, by professional

Decision support might be the technology that brings imaging out of external control and back into self-regulation, since its effectiveness appears to equal or exceed that of other utilization-management strategies (including burdensome preauthorization). Every decision-support program, however, must be able to tell the ordering physician how

You might recall that a few years ago, in this column, I extolled the virtues of a unique book by Daniel Pink called A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future (Riverhead, 2006). It discusses the emergence, in our society, of a new appreciation for a balance between left- and right-brain thinking.

With the definition of meaningful use coming into greater focus, radiologists have seen their initial disappointment at not being invited to the party evolve into the realization that they must demonstrate meaningful use of health IT or risk penalties in 2015.

The revelation that 85% of radiologists are considered nonhospital-based physicians—and are considered, therefore, to be eligible for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds—has sparked something of a gold-rush mentality in the imaging industry. Medicare-participating radiologists who are not hospital based (providing at least