Researchers have developed a new checklist to determine if general anesthesia (GA) is needed when children and young adults undergo MRI scans, sharing their findings in Clinical Radiology.

An April 2 story in the New York Times highlighted a potentially dangerous insurance coverage gap faced by heart transplant patients and recipients of other organs—the immunosuppressive drugs they need to prevent organ rejection sometimes aren’t covered by Medicare if they received the transplants before enrolling in the program.

Omega Medical Imaging’s FluoroShield gained FDA clearance this month, becoming the first AI-enabled radiation reduction technology to hit the market.

Domestic responsibilities put a damper on career satisfaction for proceduralist mothers more than for physician mothers in nonprocedural specialties, suggests a study published April 10 in JAMA Surgery.

The majority of recent journal studies evaluating the performance of AI algorithms failed to adequately validate test results, according to a meta-analysis published in the Korean Journal of Radiology, meaning most of that research can only serve as proof-of-concept and might not translate into clinical performance.

Medicare recently relaxed its rules on the supervision that non-physician radiology providers must have by radiologists for their respective practices to get reimbursed. In the wake of the change, these “midlevel providers” are likely to grow in importance as well as in numbers. 

Who wouldn’t want greater consistency in radiology reports’ substance, style and actionability to referring clinicians? And yet a substantial number of radiologists have intently avoided, quietly thwarted or tacitly rejected structured reporting. They can only hold out so long. 

The terms “AI” and “machine learning” appear early and often on the agenda for SIIM19, which rolls into Denver the last week of June. The heavy dose of AI-related tech talk is no surprise, given the fast and steady interest in these technologies evidenced by imaging informaticists in medicine.

Radiologists are often part of multispecialty groups that participate in a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO. As a result, many radiologists are in these ACOs often without even realizing it.

Publishing direct-to-consumer pricing would allow competitive comparison of real rates. In radiology, this means getting the information to patients both directly and through ordering physicians.