Patients want to play an active role in managing their healthcare — and online access to medical records is an important first step. This concept is also a requirement in Stage 2 Meaningul Use requirements.

Sunshine act, disclosure, cardiology, radiology

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a final rule for the Sunshine Act on Feb. 1 that will increase public disclosure of financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and physicians and teaching hospitals.

The latest version of the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) — a system of standardized terminology and criteria to interpret and report imaging examinations of the liver — includes several modifications and enhancements to the previous version. These include:

A prospective study was published recently in the American Journal of Roentgenology on whether coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) provided an accurate and efficient management method for assessment of chest pain patients with low to intermediate risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This study, presented by Ricardo C. Cury, M.D., of Baptist Health of South Florida, current vice president of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) and colleagues, was carried out over three emergency departments in a large healthcare system, between January 2009 and October 2010, and found that length of stay was cut in half, and the rate of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) remained very low in patients with negative CTA findings.

Toshiba Medical Systems NIH Clinical Study CT System

A new computed tomography (CT) scanner substantially reduces potentially harmful radiation while still improving overall image quality. National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers, along with engineers at Toshiba Medical Systems, worked on the scanner. An analysis of data on 107 patients undergoing heart scans found that radiation exposure was reduced by as much as 95 percent compared to the range of current machines, while the resulting images showed less blurriness, reduced graininess and greater visibility of fine details.

At an exclusive event scheduled March 1, 2013, Elekta will reveal a leap forward in radiation oncology and the care of individuals with cancer worldwide.

The need for flawless coordination of its carbon ion treatments led officials at the CNAO Foundation (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica) to choose Elekta’s Mosaiq Oncology Information Management System. On Nov. 13, the CNAO Foundation became the world’s first center to use Mosaiq to guide a cancer patient’s carbon ion therapy. CNAO — which made news last year when it treated its first patient with proton therapy — is now nearing completion of its National Center of Oncological Hadrontherapy.

Agfa HealthCare has introduced its global remote incident prevention (GRIP) services to provide state-of-the-art electronic monitoring of all IMPAX picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) worldwide, as well as linked devices from other suppliers. GRIP’s ultimate goal is to prevent unsettling downtime surprises in the healthcare environment.

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