An important change is occurring in the practice of screening mammography. The availability and acceptance of full-field digital mammography is gaining momentum and with it, the practice of using soft copy for interpretation.

Before his resignation in 2006 as the Bush Administration’s national healthcare IT czar, Dr. David Brailer had been passionately promoting the value of electronic health records (EHRs) for about two years. From a strategic point of view, what kind of progress do you think he made in convincing healthcare facilities to adopt and implement this technology? And how should healthcare facilities interpret his resignation?

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.

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.