Siemens Backs Medical Imaging Before Congress

June 25, 2009 - Siemens Healthcare's CEO for the Workflow and Solutions Division, Thomas Miller, testified yesterday before the Health Subcommittee, Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives on the need for healthcare reform and the importance of medical imaging.

In his testimony on ways to improve the quality of healthcare delivery while reducing its overall costs, Miller noted that there is undeniable evidence that medical imaging finds disease earlier, renders some invasive procedures obsolete, and saves lives. The medical imaging industry has worked hard to generate savings and efficiencies by developing physician-driven appropriateness guidelines that will ensure appropriate and effective use of diagnostic technologies, while assuring every patient has access.

"The evidence that medical imaging finds disease earlier, renders some invasive procedures obsolete, and saves lives, is irrefutable," said Miller. "Through medical imaging, we gain tremendous knowledge about disease. We can detect it earlier, intervene sooner and, therefore, achieve better outcomes. That is the solution to our healthcare crisis. And, diagnostic imaging, with its insight into the human body - is the key."

Mr. Miller presented to the Committee the facts about medical imaging:

1. Diagnostic technologies support more cost-effective care by enabling earlier, faster and more accurate diagnosis, eliminating the need for expensive and invasive surgeries and inappropriate therapies, reducing hospital admissions, and, in many cases, avoiding costs of long-term chronic conditions.
2. The growth in medical imaging can be attributed to its transformational effect on medicine for almost every facet of every disease. Physicians know that medical imaging is simply the best tool they have to diagnose disease with confidence. And, the great majority of physicians have one overriding interest: to achieve the best possible outcomes for their patients.
3. The best means to reduce costs and overuse is by creating a more efficient healthcare system through Healthcare Information Technology and to manage medical imaging utilization through physician-driven appropriateness guidelines.

"Advanced diagnostic imaging technologies don't just improve health - they save lives. Simply ask any woman whose mammogram detected breast cancer in its earliest stages to make her a survivor. Ask anyone whose Coronary CT Angiography found blocked arteries before he/she suffered a catastrophic - or fatal - heart attack," noted Miller.

For more information: www.siemens.com/healthcare