Johns Hopkins University researchers found in a recent study that adding 99mTc-setamibi SPECT/CT, a noninvasive imaging test, to CT or MRI increases accuracy in classifying kidney tumor.

As healthcare policies continue to emphasize value-based care, the tracking and management of data has become more important in radiology than ever before. And while turnaround time was once the primary metric used for measuring quality of care and service throughout the imaging industry, it is no longer the only game in town. 

When Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center made the bold decision in 2010 to launch a structured reporting system, leaders within the radiology department knew they were bucking more than 100 years of history. That’s how long prose reports have been the radiologists’ definitive work product, a fierce source of professional pride and personal identity that had stubbornly resisted change even as new reporting techniques sprouted around them—techniques that could provide greater consistency and more robust, mineable reports that facilitate faster payment.

Physicians in the United States are guilty of over-recommending mammography to women, according to a survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine. Conflicting recommendations from imaging societies and regulatory bodies, fee-for-service payment systems and fear of malpractice litigation are major factors, according to the authors.

Researchers who collected data from men who attended yoga class twice a week during prostate cancer radiation treatment found that they were less fatigued and had better sexual and urinary function.

A group of researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles found that children who were part of a clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of reduced radiotherapy had less successful results when there were deviations from the treatment protocol. 

With more than 25 years of being involved in research to detect and characterize prostate cancers at early stages, John Kurhanewicz, PhD, is using his work to impact patient care.

Establishing concrete protocols for logging unanticipated events in MRI can help imaging practices establish internal performance benchmarks and make data-driven decisions on resource allocation, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.