Week in Review: Blood test could reduce head CT utilization | Social media, AI & radiology | AHRA 2018

A blood test administered within 12 hours of a suspected traumatic brain injury (TBI) could help clinicians identify injuries like hemorrhage and contusion before having to resort to CT imaging, according to the preliminary results of a study published this week in the Lancet Neurology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an immensely popular topic in radiology, sparking countless discussions and debates about whether it will give radiologists a new tool for providing high-quality patient care or end up replacing them altogether.

On Monday, July 23, AHRA President Angelic Bush, MSRS, CRA, RT, kicked off the opening ceremony of the AHRA 2018 Annual Meeting in Orlando with a few words of encouragement about the association’s humble beginnings and its lasting legacy.

Jacqui Rose, MBA, CRA, began her presentation at the AHRA 2018 Annual Meeting in Orlando by going over some of the changes today’s imaging leaders face on a daily basis. It’s a long list, of course—one that includes payment reforms, technological breakthroughs, regulatory updates, policy shifts and much more.

Less than half of imaging studies performed at academic radiology departments involve trainees, according to research published this month in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology. Residents and fellows seem to dedicate most of their time to CT and MRI.

Sham Sokka, PhD, has spent the bulk of his career in radiology, where he’s worked for 15 years with a range of clients to shape and customize imaging modalities, workflows and software.

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to repeal the medical device tax, originally implemented as a piece of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, by a vote of 283 to 132. Fifty-seven Democrats voted with Republicans to eliminate the 2.3 percent tax. All eyes are now on the Senate to see what may happen next.

Recent advances in cone beam technology mean neurointerventionalists are able to diagnose a patient with large vessel occlusion without a CT scan or trip to the emergency department—possibly reducing time to care by as much as an hour.

As the older members of Generation Z, now in their late teens and 20s, are starting to filter into universities, grad schools and medical programs across the country, the demographic is bringing an entirely new set of assets and challenges with it, according to an editorial published in the Journal of the American College Radiology this week.

Nearly 40 percent of women find their breast cancer treatment unaffordable, according to a large-scale study published in Cancer this month—but radiation oncologists are better than some at communicating financial difficulties to their patients.

Radiologists with high rates of clinical productivity are likely also better teachers for residents, according to data published this month in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.