Medical Imaging

Physicians utilize medical imaging to see inside the body to diagnose and treat patients. This includes computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, angiography,  and the nuclear imaging modalities of PET and SPECT. 

Long and longer: Imaging wait times in Canada

Prior to the arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020, Canadian patients waited nearly three months for an MRI and more than 11 weeks for a CT. Things have only gotten worse since then.

FDA clears X-ray system that produces hi-rez cine loops for chiropractors

Konica Minolta Healthcare has received FDA’s go-ahead to market a dynamic digital radiography (DDR) system.  

Outreach team builds system to head off screening cancellations

Expanding available hours on top of calling with reminders did the equity-focused job with encouraging effectiveness.   

2 imaging orgs to spread ultrasound access around the world and over the long haul

Something like 50 million people in 10 parts of the developing world stand to experience a bounce in quality of healthcare in coming years thanks to a major new aid project co-led by two large nonprofits with expertise in medical imaging.

Preclinical med students quick studies in cardiac POCUS

Briefly trained in point-of-care cardiac ultrasound, 72% of second-year medical students obtained clinical-quality views from a mannequin and 61% made the correct diagnosis in a volunteer simulated patient.

AI for assessing bone fragility gets breakthrough tag

Orthopedic cone-beam CT supplier CurveBeam AI has received the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for software that computes risk of fracture in patients with osteopenia.

Imaging fraud lands surgeon in jail

An orthopedic surgeon in California will spend seven years in prison for needlessly X-raying 10 patients hundreds of times over a four-year stretch.

The rise and fall of race-based radiation dosing: 4 lessons

Thanks to public outcry and legislative action in 1968, Black patients have not routinely received higher-dose X-rays than their fair-skinned peers for more than half a century.

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.