A survey of cardiologists conducted last year by MedAxiom and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) challenges the idea that overutilization of imaging is a growing problem in that specialty. On average, the cardiologists surveyed recorded 29 percent more patient visits since 2004 but performed fewer imaged stress studies.

As health care becomes increasingly consumer driven, patients are expecting higher levels of service and satisfaction from their providers, including providers of medical imaging. Elliot Silverman, director of imaging services at Palmetto General Hospital (Hialeah, Florida), notes that many patients have only a vague notion of what’s in store when

This article is third in a three-part series. To read the first article in the series, click here; to read the second, click here.

This article is the third in a four-part series. To read part one, click here; to read part two, click here.

In September, ProScan Imaging, which owns a network of 25 imaging centers in seven states, became the first organization in the world to install the high-field Echelon Oval 1.5T MRI system from Hitachi Medical Systems. Featuring an oval-shaped bore that measures 74 cm, the Echelon Oval reflects the growing trend toward patient centricity in imaging

No health-care enterprise wants to make an enormous investment in technology for image storage, only to find it outdated and in need of an upgrade. The vendor-neutral archive has been proposed as a natural antidote to this problem, but an archive alone is, increasingly, not enough—particularly for large academic institutions that intend to improve

For 2012, CMS proposed a reduction in the cost-of-capital (or interest-rate) assumption used in the development of the cost-of-equipment estimates that are included in the practice-expense component of the RVU calculations. Historically, CMS has used an interest-rate assumption of 11%. Based on the current prime rate and maximum interest rates for

Cloud-based technologies have been relatively slow to penetrate the health-care IT market, but several advances in technology—as well as federal programs that encourage the adoption of interoperable solutions—are changing that, according to Vijay Ramanathan, CEO and cofounder of RamSoft Inc. “The biggest trend that is driving cloud computing, in