June 28, 2007 - Medical imaging manufacturers are lobbying Congress to overturn Medicare cuts that took effect in January, which slashed Medicare reimbursements to doctors for performing X-rays, MRIs and other imaging exams.

Reimbursements to doctors for MRI scans, for example, have already decreased by 38 percent nationwide and are expected to save $2.8 billion over five years.

June 27, 2007 -- The Joint Commission has announced the 2008 National Patient Safety Goals and related Requirements for each of its accreditation programs and its Disease-Specific Care Certification Program.

The Goals and Requirements, recently approved by the Joint Commission’s Board of Commissioners, apply to the nearly 15,000 Joint Commission-accredited and certified healthcare organizations and programs.

June 27, 2007 – Stating the nation's emergency care system is "teetering on the brink of collapse," emergency physicians shared examples of emergency departments that "remain woefully underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded and overwhelmed," while testifying before a congressional hearing focused on what the federal government has done since the release of the landmark "The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System" Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports one year ago.

June 27, 2007 - The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and Royal Philips Electronics have developed a computer aided diagnosis system for neurodegenerative diseases to support clinicians in diagnosing the onset and type of disease as early as possible, and the tool is set to undergo clinical evaluation at UKE to fine-tune the its ability to detect and differentiate the three most common types of neurodegenerative disease – Alzheimer’s Disease, Lewy-body Dementia and Frontotemporal Dementia.

June 27, 2007 - Eizo Nanao Corp. of Japan and Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) (Nuremberg, Germany) have announced an agreement in which Eizo will acquire Siemens’ medical monitor business. As part of the agreement Eizo will gain approximately 130 employees and the operations in Karlsruhe, Germany, in addition to business-related employees in the U.S., France and China. The transaction is subject to approval of the relevant authorities and is expected to be completed during the 2007 calendar year.