The Society of Nuclear Medicine made three significant announcements today, including finalizing a proposal begun in January 2012 that would change its name to the more inclusive “Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.”

lifeIMAGE announced that its lifeIMAGE OutBox service will use a newly developed publishing engine to help hospitals and imaging providers securely and automatically share results of imaging exams in the cloud.

Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. announced the availability of VeloCT. This console upgrade includes new enhancements for patient safety, dose management and workflow for existing Aquilion 32, Aquilion 64 and Aquilion CX CT systems manufactured between 2006 and 2012.

As the pursuit of reducing the unnecessary utilization of imaging equipment continues, new research questions the idea that greater access to information could necessarily lead to less imaging—and therefore, lowered costs to the system.

In a deal that both parties say will create the first digital management portfolio to track both CT radiation and contrast dosage, Bayer HealthCare and Radimetrics, Inc. will co-distribute a radiology workflow solution that addresses both issues.

Ever since the 2009 shutdown of the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Canada, the North American imaging community has been searching for a viable source of production to replace the loss of its top isotope generator.

This article is the second in a four-part series. To read the first article, click here.

According to a 2011 report¹ developed by Radiology Business Journal with data from SDI (formerly Verispan), while imaging-center chains in the United States experienced a slower rate of growth in 2011 than in previous years, the total number of imaging centers in the country increased by 72, for a total of 6,383. At a time when radiology-group