The recent OTech Webcast on career opportunities in PACS and healthcare IT drew not only hundreds of attendees but also a very animated discussion from the audience, addressing the technical and clinical backgrounds of PACS administrators, the value of experience and new opportunities in clinics and smaller institutions. Audience questions included:

Radiation oncologists are faced with the ongoing challenge of very accurately delivering dose to lesions, often in difficult to reach areas such as the head and neck, lungs and prostate. But clinicians may be overcoming that obstacle as new advances in IMRT technologies offer unprecedented improvements in the speed and accuracy of radiation therapy.

Many of our readers are wondering how the federal health policy to require a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare’s physician reimbursement rates on July 1, 2008, and an additional 5 percent on January 1, 2009, will affect capital equipment purchases, technology and staffing.