Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

CMS pauses new Medicare hospice and home health provider entries for six months
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it’s issuing a nationwide moratorium on new providers entering the spaces until it has a chance to look into allegations of fraud, waste and abuse. It confirmed investigations of various organizations are pending.
Consolidation of physician practices proceeds apace, corporatizing medicine one acquisition at a time
The days when most doctors worked in independent practice settings are fading from memory like old photoprints in a musty scrapbook.
Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats
Private-equity acquisitions of primary-care provider practices neither alter hospitalization rates nor affect acute-care outcomes, according to new research out of Brown University.
12 of the top technology vendors serving children’s hospitals
Epic makes the list with its enterprise inpatient EHR and related platforms. So does PCC, aka Physician’s Computer Company, which supplies pediatric-specific ambulatory EHR and practice-management products and services.
Weight loss drugs are hiking employer healthcare prices, with 87% saying they expect costs to only go up
In a survey, employers told the Business Group on Health that they aren’t yet seeing evidence of long-term health benefits from taking GLP-1s for weight loss, leaving them unsure how to manage costs while continuing to cover them.

FDA clears 3D print application for head/face and ortho structures

A new system for developing and printing 3D models of tissue and bone from clinical CT images has been regulatorily OK’d for sale in the U.S.

Many clinicians flouting X-ray-first guidelines for ankle imaging

Established clinical guidelines hold that patients presenting with ankle issues should not receive advanced imaging ahead of standard radiography. New research shows a substantial proportion of ordering clinicians sending these patients straight to MRI anyway.

Siemens debuts new, cleared SPECT/CT model

Siemens Healthineers splashed an FDA-approved SPECT/CT system June 12 at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Nuclear Imaging in Vancouver, B.C.

AI reads of neck ultrasounds could displace thyroid biopsies

Upon training a machine learning model to analyze ultrasound images of the neck, researchers tested their algorithm and have found it correctly flagged likely cancerous nodules of the thyroid gland at a 97% clip.

TikTok for radiology: Don’t knock it till you’ve truly tried it

Despite its reputation as a frivolous video app for self-styled dancers, TikTok deserves consideration as a means of educating medical students as well as the general public on all things radiology.

Homerton Healthcare in the UK chooses enterprise imaging as a cloud service from Sectra to ensure patients benefit from latest technology

International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a contract with Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Sectra will provide the Trust with enterprise imaging as a fully managed cloud service.

Personal, medical info on 2 million radiology patients may be in hands of cybercriminals

A family-owned provider organization that supplies advanced imaging and radiation oncology services at more than 30 locations has fallen victim to a sizeable cyberattack.

Pandemic’s hardest hit breast-care segment: Screening mammography

COVID-19 set back screening mammography further than any other category of breast care, dropping schedule adherence during infection peaks to 36% of pre-pandemic rates.

Business Intelligence

CMS pauses new Medicare hospice and home health provider entries for six months

Consolidation of physician practices proceeds apace, corporatizing medicine one acquisition at a time

Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats

12 of the top technology vendors serving children’s hospitals

Weight loss drugs are hiking employer healthcare prices, with 87% saying they expect costs to only go up