HOUSTON, Jan. 7, 2014 -- The Department of Pediatric Radiology at Texas Children's Hospital is excited to announce that Dr. Kamlesh U. Kukreja has been named the new chief of Interventional Radiology. Kukreja, whose appointment was effective Jan. 1, has also been appointed as Assistant Professor of radiology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). For more information about interventional radiology at Texas Children's visit texaschildrens.org.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan. 8, 2014 -- Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system and currently afflicts over one million people in North America, and more than five million people worldwide, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. While medication can curb symptoms, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of Parkinson's disease is that medications often lose efficacy as the disease progresses.

Like many people, Chris Tirabassi has watched the political parties duke it out over the relative merits of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. As practice administrator for CNY Diagnostic Imaging Associates LLC (Liverpool, New York), however, he has little time for philosophical discussion. Instead, Tirabassi is knee-deep in the meaningful-use mandates of the HITECH Act, as they apply to CNY’s Syracuse-area private practice of six radiologists.

In dissecting stage 2 of the meaningful-use program, Alberto Goldszal, MBA, PhD, drolly summarizes the meaningful-use challenge for radiologists: “In the meaningful-use rules, you are going to see some specific examples of things that are changing the radiology workflow that are perceived as a contraindication for radiology efficiency,” he says. “Overall, it does improve patient care—at least, that is the intended goal.”

For Colorado Springs Radiologists/PENRAD Imaging (Colorado Springs, Colorado), state-of-the-art imaging equipment and IT solutions have long supported a mission to offer top-tier patient care while maintaining a high degree of efficiency overall. A recent move to support this mission by replacing its RIS and billing systems has led the practice to the brink of Stage 1 meaningful use Stage 1 attestation, slated to occur shortly after January 1, 2014.

Mortsel, Belgium/Greenville, SC – 16 December 2013 – Agfa HealthCare announces today the first two U.S. sales of IMPAX Agility, a brand new imaging platform that unifies the functionalities provided by traditionally disparate RIS, PACS, reporting, 3-D, connectivity and clinical applications. Montgomery General Hospital, Montgomery, West Virginia, and Open Systems Imaging, Palm Desert, California, selected IMPAX Agility to boost their business success by simplifying IT integration efforts and providing a cost-saving image management platform. Both customers have chosen Agfa HealthCare’s managed services deployment model due to its reliability, predictability and userfriendliness.   With Agfa HealthCare’s managed service, both IMPAX Agility customers never need to worry about storage hardware availability, maintenance or obsolescence during the term of their contracts with Agfa HealthCare.

American Fork, Utah, December 16, 2013 – Novarad expands its southern PACS installations adding a community hospital and clinic. The contracts, facilitated by Novarad South, a Novarad distributor, include:- Pioneer Health Services of Oneida, a clinic in Oneida, Tenn.- Macon County General Hospital in Lafayette, Tenn.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN-- Dec 17, 2013 - Virtual Radiologic (vRad), the nation's largest radiology practice, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the Company's 12th and 13th patents. Patent No. 8,612,250, titled "Multiple Resource and Planning System," and Patent No. 8,612,253, titled "Medical Image Metadata Processing," further enhance vRad's patent portfolio covering its teleradiology image processing, multiple resource planning and workflow systems, with the patents including additional claims around the processing and assignment of complex medical diagnostic imaging evaluation orders.