The Commonwealth Fund’s 2018 scorecard on state health system performance saw the five highest-ranked states maintain their exact rankings from the last report, with Hawaii again claiming the No. 1 spot. The most striking finding was the surge in deaths from suicide, alcohol and overdoses from opioids and other drugs since 2005.

Low mammography quality has been linked to an increase in false positives, Canadian radiologists reported this month. Such a decrease in standard of care could be compromising patient comfort during an already-disconcerting procedure.

CT angiography could be improving the quality of postmortem diagnosis, researchers reported in Radiology this week—but the tool isn’t often used in the autopsy room.

Implementing a workflow-integrated program that helps radiologists provide feedback to technologists can increase radiologist engagement and help a practice identify and address ongoing issues, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

More than a third of patients diagnosed with terminal lung cancer undergo palliative radiation therapy that can improve their quality of life, but more than half of those individuals could be experiencing overtreatment, researchers reported this month.

The older a surgeon gets, the lower the patient mortality rate, with female surgeons in their 50s having the lowest rates overall, according to research led by Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Leapfrog Group’s 2018 Hospital Safety Grades found that a handful of facilities have made major strides in reducing infection rates and deaths due to error. Of the 2,500 hospitals examined, 89 receiving an A this year had previously been rated as a D or F.

Navigation programs aimed at breast and colorectal cancer patients could provide an enduring link to the healthcare system while boosting screening rates—but the added expenses of such a program mean clinicians will likely need to gear that care toward a select few, research published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology suggests.