As hard as the industry tried to defeat the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), it is here for at least the near future. The earliest we can expect relief is January 2008 if the winds of reasonability fall upon Congress. The lack of benchmarks and objective evidence supporting the cost of service was one of many challenges lobbyists faced over the past 10 months. Thus, outcomes for the outpatient imaging industry have become bleak. The industry is going to have to tighten its belt to survive.



For years, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) has assisted doctors in contouring radiation beams around anatomical structures to target tumors. As tumors or organs shift, however, the beam can fall off target and damage surrounding healthy tissue. With image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), which allows physicians to scan and locate the tumor while the patient is in the treatment position, the volume of healthy tissue exposed to radiation during treatment has shrunk from half an inch or more



When you picked up your copy of the February/March 2007 edition of Outpatient Care Technology you may have noticed something a little different. Honestly, your mind’s eye isn’t playing tricks on you. And neither are we.
Following closely on the heels of OPCT’s redesigned and relaunched Web site, the staff here spent much of the last half of 2006 massaging and updating the visual appeal of the magazine and its three sister publications, Imaging Technology News, Diagnostic & Invasive Cardiology and Acuity Care Technology.


March 2, 2007 - Saitek Industries Ltd. recently announced the shipment of its backlit keyboard, the Eclipse Red, a slim computer keyboard with backlighting which can reportedly be used in dimly-lit corridors or any type of low-light or no-light situation, targeted to the medical community.

March 1, 2007 - Kodak�s health group showcased its new Carestream digital dashboard that reportedly provides system administrators with a way to monitor equipment performance, storage utilization and volume changes, designed to manage Kodak Carestream RIS, Carestream PACS and Carestream information management solutions.

Plasmon's UDO2 is a second-generation Ultra-Density Optical (UDO) archive, which doubles its storage capacity from 30 to 60 GB. All UDO products are backward compatible, eliminating the need to migrate data. The UDO Archive Appliance is a network-attached archiving system, or a plug-n-play ‘library,’ increasing its storage space from 32 pieces of media to 638.

By Mary Beth Massat


Neurostar Solutions' version 6.4 Virtual Radiology Network (VRN) clinical image workflow platform, a Web-based solution for converting to a digital radiology environment, enabling users to outsource reading radiologists.

March 1, 2007 - Kodak’s health group showcased its new Carestream digital dashboard that reportedly provides system administrators with a way to monitor equipment performance, storage utilization and volume changes, designed to manage Kodak Carestream RIS, Carestream PACS and Carestream information management solutions.

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