In October of 2006, they gave us fair warning: “If the Deficit Reduction Act goes through…facilities will buy less and less expensive products,” said one industry expert. Others echoed this, and now the river of anxiety has morphed into a tsunami.

With the DRA here, we re-visit the issue, questioning an industry cross-section to find some surprising issues hiding in the shadows.

1. How has your organization adapted to prepare for the DRA?

When a sudden interruption of blood flow halts oxygen delivery to the brain, the individual suffers a “brain attack,” more commonly known as a stroke. Medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, carotid artery disease, atrial fibrillation, diabetes and obesity, as well as heredity and age, are common risk factors. As with any disease state, the keys to prevention rest largely on a healthy lifestyle and access to the latest medical advances.

In a recent letter to the editor, an ITN reader brought up the decision made on May 23rd, 2006, to re-classify digital mammography from a Class III product to Class II. According to the reader, “This was widely thought to mean that the complicated and lengthy process of filing a PMA to gain FDA approval to market digital mammography would no longer be required.”

June 11, 2007 - Fujifilm Medical Systems USA introduced at SIIM 2007 the new XG2000, a computed radiography (CR) system that features two cassette slots but can be reconfigured to four, and is designed to target a niche in the emerging CR market for small hospitals and imaging centers.

June 11, 2007 - The Plasmon UDO Archive Appliance Express (AA Express) is an archiving solution designed in collaboration with leading medical integrators specifically for medical facilities, offering secure and cost-effecting storage solutions.

June 11, 2007 - RamSoft announced the release of PowerServer PACS version 4.3, an enterprise grade solution for effective image management, the first release under the company’s new Customer Action Initiative (CAI), a program aimed at customer centric software development.

June 11, 2007 – The newly launched Universal Mammotome MR Biopsy System from Ethicon Endo-Surgery is compatible with wider range of breast coils and magnets and can work with most grid/cube location systems, the most common method of MR lesion targeting.
The Mammotome MR Universal Targeting Set is designed for fast and easy set up, can be used with most grid localization systems and its imageable aperture allows physicians to visually verify the placement of the probe relative to the targeted lesions.

June 11, 2007 - Commissure released at SIIM 2007 the new version of its PACS, RadWhere Suite v2.0, which includes an updated speech engine, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.1, to meet the demand for efficient reporting.

June 11, 2007 - Siemens Display Technologies showcased at SIIM 2007 a new 3MP color display, SCD 21310, a display that complements the company’s range of diagnostic LCDs for PACS and has dual-link DVI support.
Siemens Display also rolled out a new cost-efficient 1MP color display, the SCD 19110, which offers high luminance up to 300 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1000:1.

For more information: www.automation.siemens.com/monitors-med

June 11, 2007 - Calgary Scientific Inc. Medical Group announced the availability of the ResolutionMD Advanced Visualization (AV) Toolkit and unveiled ResolutionMD Oncology suite and Virtual Colonoscopy at SIIM 2007. These new products combined with the ResolutionMD Cardiac and Neuro suites are designed to provide PACS, HIS, RIS, practice management and EMR systems vendors access to a wide array of tightly-integrated general and disease-specific visualization and analysis applications.

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