Michael Trambert, MD, had long suspected the workflow reporting automation made possible by the tightly integrated PACS/RIS/VR solution used by the Santa Barbara Radiology Medical Group (SBRMC) was saving him about an hour each day. A two-pronged study1 presented at the recent meeting of the RSNA confirmed that the conjectured efficiencies were even greater than he thought—adding up to 75 minutes per day.

Databases, including that of a RIS, are fine for managing simple, linear workflows: Think scheduling, completing and interpreting exams. If you add in a step that makes things just a bit more complex—even something as seemingly basic as checking if the patient is in hospital or at home and needs an appointment reminder—then the works can quickly gum up.

The medical imaging community is buzzing over the GE MRI recall—by now, no other words are needed to name it—and the chatter will probably continue for a long time to come.

GE is recalling almost 13,000 MRI units, as the FDA has deemed them potentially deadly.

On the heels of a Consumer Reports investigation that raised new red flags over radiation risks, a specialty pharma company has announced plans to speed up its march to market a radio-protective compound that could be given to patients about to have CT or x-ray exams. 

Merge, the multispecialty software supplier based in Chicago, is partnering with Nashville-based Emdeon, which specializes in payment management systems, to offer the latter’s radiology customers a way to send electronic referrals and receive radiology reports from users of Merge’s iConnect Network.

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Step into one radiology reading room in Detroit and you may think you’ve been beamed into Captain Kirk’s bridge inside the Starship Enterprise.