Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

HHS Announces 2013 HIT Agenda Without Mention of Cuts

Got an idea for how to accomplish the enormous job of speeding the nation-wide adoption of electronic health records that actually can share data (interoperability) without spending any extra money? Health and Human Services (HHS) is all ears

Sequester Arrives with 2% Cut to Medicare and No SGR Fix in Sight

Although Medicare spending is shielded from the largest across-the-board mandated cuts known as the the sequester, the cuts will still total $11.1 billion for fiscal 2013

MMP Turns 20

The founders of the Atlanta-based medical billing and practice management company credit MMP’s core value of partnership with clients as the underpinning for the company’s two decades of growth

NEJM Study Supports Greater Use of CT Lung Cancer Screening

The NEJM research and findings by the journal Cancer that 12,000 lives alone might be saved using more conservative criteria supports advocates' arguments for expanding testing criteria and payor coverage

Merge No Longer for Sale

Last September, Merge Healthcare asked an investment banking firm to solicit offers for the company, but its CEO said last week that it is no longer looking for a buyer

RamSoft Launches its Cloud Offering in Canada

Toronto-based RamSoft's PowerServer Cloud Canada will offer imaging centers and hospitals a secure PIPEDA-compliant cloud-based RIS/PACS that it says will be more affordable because it will not require a major IT investment in onsite servers and can be launched in a matter of weeks

ACR Dose Index Registry Surpasses 5 Million Scans

The ACR says more than five million CT scans and nearly three million exams have been added to its Dose Index Registry™, bringing the ACR closer to establishing national benchmarks for CT dose indices

Choosing Wisely Campaign Adds More Imaging Tests to List

Pediatric CT for minor head injuries and stress tests using echocardiographic images to assess cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic patients are now on the campaign's list of common tests/procedures that are “not always necessary” and may in fact be wasteful and harmful

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The all-in-one Omni Legend PET/CT scanner is now being manufactured in a new production facility in Waukesha, Wisconsin.