ASRT to Testify on Radiation SafetyThe House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health has invited the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) to testify at an upcoming hearing to examine the benefits and risks of medical radiation. ASRT board of directors member Sandra Hayden, BS, RT(T), will represent ASRT at the hearing and deliver a prepared statement. The hearing, originally slated for Feb. 10, has been postponed due to snow predictions in D.C., and a new date is forthcoming. ...

Formerly registered technologists who would otherwise have to requalify for reinstatement through an educational program may have an easier time regaining their American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) registration if the ARRT Board of Trustees adopts a proposed change to the organization's "Rules and Regulations" this summer.That proposed change, along with several others, will be published by ARRT this spring in the 2010 "Annual Report to Registered Technologists." Communities of interest ...

HIMSS, ASQ Choose "Stories of Success"Emphasizing the link between improvements in health care quality, patient safety and health IT, The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and American Society for Quality (ASQ) have selected 16 real-world and peer-reviewed case study submissions for inclusion in Stories of Success! Leveraging HIT, Improving Quality & Safety program.  Introduced in October 2009, Stories of Success! showcases outstanding accomplishments in the adoption ...

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has committed to a six-point patient protection plan that will improve safety and quality and reduce the chances of medical errors, ASTRO Board Chairman Tim R. Williams, MD, says. "ASTRO's highest priority has always been ensuring patients receive the safest, most effective treatments by providing tools and professional guidance to our members. We have been developing and refining many of these programs for years and they have been making a huge ...

The Coalition for the Advancement of Brachytherapy (CAB) announced today that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) corrected the interim relative value units (RVUs) for Remote Afterloading High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy per request by CAB and its member companies. The revised RVUs published as part of the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule dated Nov. 25, 2009, appropriately added substantial direct cost to the calculation of the practice expense RVUs for three HDR ...

An analysis of previous studies suggests that for patients with a suspected blood clot in a deep vein of a leg, withholding anticoagulation therapy after a negative whole-leg compression ultrasound is associated with a low risk of developing a blood clot during the subsequent three months, suggesting that multiple ultrasounds may not be necessary for some low-risk patients, according to an article in the Feb. 3 issue of JAMA.Compression ultrasound (CUS) is the primary testing procedure used to diagnose ...

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) has issued a statement in the wake of several articles in the media last week--including The New York Times--that discuss a number of rare but tragic events in the last decade involving people undergoing radiation therapy. While it does not specifically comment on the details of these events, the statement acknowledges their gravity. It reads in part: "The AAPM and its members deeply regret that these events have occurred, and we continue to ...

The Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has named The Joint Commission a designated accreditor of advanced diagnostic imaging centers. CMS' designation announcement appears in the Jan. 26, 2010 Federal Register.Medicare suppliers furnishing the technical component (TC) of advanced diagnostic imaging services must become accredited by a CMS-designated accrediting organization, such as The Joint Commission, by Jan. 1, 2012 in order to qualify for ...

The American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise-Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO) program recently received a $680,000 Biomedical Research Award from the state of Florida for two years beginning Jan. 1. The grant will expedite the development of interoperability standards and build test tools software to accomplish interoperability goals in the radiation oncology field to reduce medical errors.Grants were given to the top 20 National Institutes of Health (NIH) ...

Data from one of the largest mammography trials in history demonstrates that overall the radiation dose associated with digital mammography is significantly lower (averaging 22 percent lower) than that of conventional film-screen mammography, and that the reduction could be greater in women with larger and denser breasts, according to a study published in February American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR)."The ability to reduce the radiation dose for many women is another step forward for breast cancer ...

A Northwestern University study shows that coupling a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent to a nanodiamond results in dramatically enhanced signal intensity--and thus, vivid image contrast."The results are a leap and not a small one--it is a game-changing event for sensitivity," says Thomas J. Meade, PhD, the Eileen Foell Professor in Cancer Research in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Feinberg School of Medicine. "This is an imaging agent on steroids. The complex is far more ...

A large New York medical center reduced the number of CT scans and radiation dose delivered to emergency department patients with suspected pulmonary emboli (PE) by holding collaborative educational seminars for staff and routing patients to CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) or ventilation perfusion (V/Q) scanning based solely on their chest X-ray results, according to a study in the February American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).A V/Q scan evaluates the ability of air to reach all portions of the lungs ...

Given the current controversy over vertebroplasty--a minimally invasive treatment performed by interventional radiologists in people with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures that don't respond to conventional medical therapy--what's a patient to do? The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) urges you to trust your medical team to decide if you're an appropriate candidate for vertebroplasty--and trust the experience of hundreds of thousands of other patients who have undergone the spine ...

A recent study shows that handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) may be particularly useful for emergency radiologists, who one day soon may be able to use them for teleconsultation and emergency procedures, according to a study in the February issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. A total of 46 percent of attending physicians and trainees and 45 percent of radiologists use PDAs. "Although the benefits of handheld devices in the daily routine of clinicians [are] not under ...

People who inherit a specific form of a gene that puts them on a road to schizophrenia may be protected against some forms of cancer, according to a new study by scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. The MET proto-oncogene is activated in a variety of tumor malignancies. The gene has recently also been linked to autism and has a role in neurodevelopment, which is why Katherine E. Burdick, PhD, and her colleagues explored the relationship between MET and schizophrenia in their large ...