Of all the issues facing today’s imaging executives and radiologists, none sounds more cacophonous than the nearly universal cry that the United States spends too much on its health care. We do, indeed, allocate quite a bit more to health care, at 16% or so of the gross domestic product (GDP), than other nations do. By way of comparison, Japan, a

Contrary to popular belief among regulators and payors, imaging studies do, in fact, contribute to improved patient care, according to a to-be-published study, “The Association Between Hospital Outcomes and Diagnostic Imaging: Could More Be Better?” by David W. Lee, PhD, and David Foster, PhD.

It’s as extreme a transition as any IT professional could imagine: moving from a remotely hosted RIS to a fully integrated RIS/PACS over the course of just a few short months. Bill Cummins and his team, however, had ample motivation to make the switch. The director of medical imaging at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in Wyoming had seen

The Obama administration is pursuing an aggressive timetable to deliver on a campaign promise to make affordable health care available to all US residents. Though the task is daunting, the original timetable of late autumn is still achievable.

Enhanced image clarity, less noise, and half the radiation exposure for patients: sound good? It’s true. It’s iterative reconstruction, and it’s a mounting wave in multidetector CT technology. There’s only one catch—it’s time-consuming unless you happen to have the proprietary software of the single vendor that has come to market with a workflow

A radiology provider should look at an audit as a strategic opportunity, not a punishment, Claudia A. Murray, RCC, told her audience at the RBMA 2009 Radiology Summit in Orlando, Florida, on June 8. Murray, who presented “Internal Compliance Auditing: How to Implement an Effective (and Doable) Audit Plan,” is a principal at CMC Consulting, LLC

In a session at this month’s meeting of AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lyn M. Mehlberg, BS, CNMT, FSNMTS, a self-described regulations junkie, predicted that regulators—including the Joint Commission, CDC, OSHA, and CMS—are poised to come down hard on radiology on the issue of infection control in

It could be the smiling greeter who welcomes patients into the facility, or the glasses of lemon water and the tray of cookies keeping them company in the waiting room. Perhaps the wide variety of magazines will make all the difference, or the new carpet.