The Medicare drug benefit has come in way under budget this year, which supporters boast is a testament to the benefits of competition. Instead of costing about $43 billion this year, it will cost about $30 billion.

"The costs have been driven down not by the government but by the collective voices of millions of consumers," President Bush said during an interview shortly before the Nov. 7 elections.

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA introduced its Synapse version 3.2, the newest release of Fuji’s PACS, which includes additional digital mammography capabilities. Synapse 3.2 is being introduced on the heels of the FDA approval of Fuji’s FCRm FFDM system, and is designed to further assist facilities with workflow, visualization and image processing.

SonoSite Inc. has released the fourth major upgrade to its MicroMaxx portable ultrasound system, the company announced this week during the Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago. The new MicroMaxx software features a high-frequency transducer and enhancements for secure wireless connectivity.

Current MicroMaxx customers can upgrade existing systems to the new capabilities via compact flash cards. SonoSite plans to begin customer shipments in December.

Siemens Medical Solutions’ new dual source computed tomography system has received clearance by the FDA, the company announced during this week's Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago.

Somatom Definition, which features two X-ray sources at two different energy levels in simultaneous spiral scanning, allows clinicians to explore various scenarios for tissue characterization.

As part of an ongoing partnership to deliver turnkey PACS solutions to the medical community, Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. and McKesson Corp. introduced Horizon Medical Imaging Store 100, a cost-effective mini-PACS solution, at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting in Chicago this week.

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. is showcasing its newest works-in-progress, the Excelart Vantage Plus powered by Atlas, a 1.5T large bore system. Both the Vantage Atlas system and the Vantage Atlas Plus are on display at this year’s Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago.

Siemens Medical Solutions rolled out the newest systems from its total imaging matrix technology, known as Tim, at the Radiological Society of North America’s meeting this week in Chicago.

Siemens introduced its new Acuson Antares ultrasound system and upgrades to its Acuson Sequoia ultrasound platform, both designed to deliver improved breast imaging, at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago this week.

Candelis Inc. introduced at RSNA its next-generation ImageGrid 1500 PACS appliance, touted as a cost-effective, feature-rich and reliable image and data management option.

Designed to accommodate data-intensive imaging modalities such as 64-slice CT and MRI systems, ImageGrid 1500 offers up to 11.25 terabytes of raw capacity in a 3U form factor. Users can migrate dated images and data to tape for long-term archiving and recover disk storage capacity using the software’s storage retention feature.

GE Healthcare has introduced a CT scanner that maintains high-quality imaging while reducing patients’ radiation exposure by up to 70 percent for diagnostic cardiac scans, the company announced during the Radiological Society of North America’s meeting this week in Chicago.

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