Michael N. Linver, MD, FACR, is committed to mammography screening to detect breast cancer—what he calls screening’s role in saving women’s lives. When it comes to mammography, Linver also has a combative side: Now that screening mammography has come under attack from some critics as a possibly less-than-effective technique, Linver is fighting back

An October 26 commentary in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Big Insurance, Big Medicine” was prescient in its evaluation of the impact on the health-care profession—the business of medicine—of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I say prescient because the predicted impact happens to parallel the transformation of the business side of

A recent series of radiation overdose incidents in CT brain perfusion exams were likely due to improper use of CT systems, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Earlier this week, the agency announced the results of its investigation into these incidents, noting that they were “most likely” caused by human error rather than by

Former and heavy smokers screened for lung cancer with low-dose helical CT are less likely to die of lung cancer than those screened with standard chest X-rays, according to initial results of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) released yesterday. Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the largest randomized study of lung cancer

Health care mergers and acquisition activity spiked to $66.5 billion in the third quarter of 2010, up 44% from the $45.1 billion spent in the previous quarter, reveals a new report from research firm Irving Levin Associates, Norwalk, Ct. Third-quarter activity also rose 74% from the $38.2 billion spent during the same three months of last year, the

Demand for radiation therapy will exceed the number of radiation oncologists practicing in the U.S. by ten-fold between 2010 and 2020, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Care Center.

Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has signed into law a medical radiation protection bill aimed at protecting patients from excessive radiation exposure received during CT scans and radiation therapy procedures. Greasing the wheels for the first state law of its kind in the U.S., SB 1237, as the bill is known, mandates strict new procedures

Four community hospitals, each located in a non-metropolitan area, sought to improve their radiology service. Each began to see improvements within about six months, and the gains were accomplished, for the most part, without adding new or better modalities.