No sooner did CMS call for an October 1, 2011, compliance date for the switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes than a hue and cry arose from the health care industry, claiming that the change comes too soon.

They’re coming, and in many hospitals, they have already arrived: multidetector CT (MDCT), CT angiography (CTA), and advanced 3D imaging. This wonderful new modality offers the promise of evaluating disease processes from atherosclerosis to cancer to trauma more quickly, safely, and accurately than older techniques can. CTA is already replacing

High hopes have been pinned on the potential of IT to improve health care delivery here and around the world, but the current focus on standards may be misplaced, according to a new paper¹ published online on August 19, 2008, by Health Affairs. The authors draw on the observations and surveys of Connecting for Health (a public–private collaborative

Radiologists at Yale University figuratively equate their PACS with a toolbox and themselves with artisans, from whose hands now spring forth remarkably useful pictures: namely, manipulated and reconstructed digital images of what lies beneath the epidermis.

While radiology practices and imaging center operators spend heavily on marketing liaisons to help cement favorable referral patterns, few understand the role that hands-on PACS IT support can play.

Pulmonary hypertension is a complex process affecting pulmonary and cardiac functions. It is defined as a pulmonary pressure of more than 30 mm Hg. Its etiologies can be categorized as preload, pulmonary, or afterload pathologies. Preload abnormalities include any processes that may lead to increased pulmonary blood flow, such as left-to-right

It was a Tuesday afternoon when I received the call. The new PET/CT scanner was installed, and acceptance testing was about to begin, but my medical physicist informed me that PACS was not listed as a destination. The installation team had not configured the scanner to communicate with PACS. Not too concerned, I asked to speak with the modality

Six months ago, Jesse Salen, vice president of sales and technology for Online Radiology Medical Group (ORMG), Riverside, Calif, found himself in a situation familiar to many radiology practices: upgrade ORMG’s RIS/PACS platform or face dissolution. ORMG had been in operation for nearly a decade, but the practice’s single-database PACS wasn’t