A total of $56.3 million in contracts has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fund the development of new drugs for treating injuries associated with acute radiation syndrome.

A majority of health care organizations remain underprepared to safeguard patient privacy and secure patient data in the wake of new uses for digital health information and expanded access to confidential patient information, reveals a report released by Price Waterhouse Cooper's Health Research Institute in New York City, New York. Privacy and

The National Quality Forum (NQF) last week formally endorsed “Participation in a Systemic Dose Index Registry”, a performance measure developed by the American College of Radiology (ACR). The measure’s focus is participation in a multi-center dose index registry that collects standardized data and provides feedback, such as the ACR Dose Index

Virtual Radiologic (vRad), a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based teleradiology provider, has announced that it will offer pro bono diagnostic radiology services to international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

While a mere 15% of health care executives are “very familiar” with accountable care organizations (ACOs), more than half are proceeding with plans to establish them, according to the 2011 Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Readiness Study released recently by Beacon Partners, a health care consulting company in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

The Medicare Access to Radiology Care Act of 2011 (HR 3032), which would amend the Social Security Act to recognize radiologist assistants (RAs) as non-physician providers of health care services for Medicare beneficiaries, was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives on September 23.

The cost of defensive medicine ranges from 26% to 34% percent of total annual health care costs, according to a report by Jackson Healthcare, a health care solutions company. Annual spending on medical orders intended to avoid lawsuits, rather than to treat patients, totals $650 to $850 billion, the report indicates.

Top radiology and policy experts will offer solutions to critical imaging informatics and radiation dose challenges at the First Annual ACR Imaging Informatics Summit and Dose Monitoring Forum, to be held by the American College of Radiology (ACR) on November 3 and November 4 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.