December 18, 2007 - Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) today released the fifth annual “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism” report, which found while important progress has been made, critical areas of the nation’s emergency health preparedness effort still require attention.

In addition, the continuing trend of annual cuts in federal funding for state and local preparedness activities threatens the nation's safety, the study said.


Linear accelerators typically last about seven years and can cost more than $2 million, but return many times more in cancer therapy revenue for busy outpatient imaging centers. Housed in specially built shielded bunkers, these nine-ton behemoths commonly referred to as “linacs” are the powerful, complex, multitasking engines of radiotherapy.

What did you learn from the inaugural “Women’s Health and Imaging in a Digital Environment” meeting in late January 2007 that encouraged you to expand the content of the second annual conference, but with a simpler title – “Women’s Imaging 2008?”

The New York Times sports an age-old and notable credo with “all the news that’s fit to print.” If there’s an unofficial motto that Outpatient Care Technology magazine can adopt it’s this: All the news we can fit in print.
You may have noticed within the last year a small box that tends to show up at the end of some of our longer features, titled, “Continued online: Due to space constraints this article is continued at www.OPCTonline.net.”

It’s no secret that the bariatric patient population poses considerable challenges to the healthcare provider, particularly in the outpatient segment, and to the healthcare product manufacturer. One has to prepare its facilities to accommodate the patients; the other has to make products that facilitate such preparation.

The incidence of obesity and its related co-morbidities are increasingly becoming more visible. Primary pathologies, such as high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol levels, and secondary conditions such as sores, ulcers, arthritis, chronic pain, sleep disorders and depression all can be traced to rising incidences of obesity.
The climbing prevalence of these conditions is placing a significant strain on the healthcare system. Recent estimates show the cost of obesity-linked illnesses to the Medicare and Medicaid programs in the U.S. is over $40 billion.

Delivering a concentrated dose of radiation to a specific anatomical target that typically moves tends to be a hit-and-miss proposition without the proper tools.

Pre-operative sampling of suspicious lymph nodes in the axilla has historically been very difficult. This area is highly vascular and many physicians do not feel comfortable acquiring tissue in this region. Fine needle aspiration under ultrasound-guidance is one method for acquiring tissue in the axilla; however this method is heavily dependent on the physician’s technique and level of experience. Current spring-loaded core devices on the market are not practical for use in the axilla, as the true depth post-fire is unknown.

Until a year ago, I was treating biopsy-proven fibroadenomas by either observation or surgical excision. While I find surgical excision effective, the drawbacks include the need for general anesthesia, increased patient stress, recovery time, and based on fibroadenoma size — scarring and potential disfigurement. Observation can also be stressful on patients, especially when their fibroademomas are larger than 1 centimeter.


Quick communication between medical staff is often critical in acuity care, and new technologies are helping make it easier for staffs to increase speed and efficiency. Staffs no longer need to depend on intercom pages, pagers, landline phones or cell phones.
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