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.

ACR Enters Radiology Leadership Development

The American College of Radiology (ACR) plans to create its own professional development and leadership academy next year. The ACR's Radiology Leadership Institute (RLI) will be an innovative, multi-level, multi-year academy that will feature world-class instructors from renowned universities, the ACR press release promises.

AHRA and Toshiba Expand Patients First Program

For the fourth year of in a row, AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management and Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., are offering grants to fund programs, training or seminars aimed at improving patient care and safety in CT, MR, Ultrasound, X-ray and Vascular imaging.

Vital Images' New Universal Viewer Gets FDA OK

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given 510(k) clearance for VitreaView, a new universal viewer from Minneapolis-based Vital Images Inc.

Physicians File Suit Against CMS

A group of primary care physicians from Georgia have filed suit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, claiming that the agency and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are violating federal laws by relying on the American Medical Association

FDA Issues Guidance on PET Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes

A final guidance on current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) for PET radiopharmaceuticals has been issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Concord Medical Services, GE Healthcare To Form Strategic Partnership

Concord Medical Services, which operates a network of radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging centers in China, last week announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Healthcare through GE subsidiaries, General Electric International Operations, and GE Medical Systems Trade and Development to form a preferred strategic partnership

Optimizing Patient Satisfaction for Higher Reimbursement

Sponsored by Hitachi Healthcare Americas

One of health-care reform’s least controversial mandates was a requirement that hospitals improve their patient-satisfaction scores or take a reimbursement hit. In October 2012, CMS is set to begin withholding 1% of its payments to hospitals, putting the money (estimated at around $850 million for the first year) into a bonus pool that will be

Radiologists Seek Prestige, Lifestyle Benefits

Radisphere

The number-one reason cited by its radiologists for choosing a non-traditional practice setting is to align with a leading organization, according to a survey of its physicians by Radisphere, Westport, Connecticut. Running a close second and third were lifestyle/schedule flexibility and the backing of a professional support team, the poll reveals.

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

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.