Ray Montecalvo, MD, medical director for Virtual Radiologic (vRad), describes the key benefit of radiology analytics simply: they take emotion out of the equation. 

Radiology analytics is one key asset with which to preserve our specialty’s future, prevent commoditization and avoid being viewed as a cost center to be managed as opposed to an indispensable partner with an earned seat at the table.  

ATLANTA, June 3, 2014 – Gonzales Healthcare Systems in Gonzales, Texas has implemented a wide range of medical imaging solutions from McKesson. Following a competitive evaluation process, the hospital chose McKesson for its proven ability to rapidly deploy integrated healthcare IT solutions with enhanced functionality that better integrate patient data, test results and images, while streamlining workflow, increasing collaboration and enhancing productivity for providers. The systems are designed to help enhance clinician productivity and foster better coordinated, more efficient patient care.

According to live reports from the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) 2014, the Apple iPhone will be able to collect and analyze all of the personal health and fitness data that a consumer inputs into the phone.

The ACR issued a swift response to a paper presented this morning at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that overestimates the potential costs of low-dose CT (LDCT) lung-cancer screening to the Medicare program by using an outdated definition of a positive screening study.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a windfall, but radiologists and their practice and department administrators got a piece of very good news this week with the announcement that CMS has recognized the ACR’s National Radiology Data Registry as a so-called Qualified Clinical Data Registry.

Nearly half of all radiologists are reporting PQRS data, according to the ACR, and now they can do so using the ACR’s National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR).  If they register by June 30, the annual reporting fee is waived for individual radiologists whose practices/facilities are registered participants.

Earlier this month, the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) in Washington, DC, announced that it had brokered a deal with three large national health insurers to contribute claims data to an online consumer tool that will offer information about the price and quality of 300 to 400 health care procedures—a list likely to include selected medical imaging procedures.