The University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison, WI, is at the forefront of medical research and technology, so it makes sense that the first prototype image-guided IMRT system produced by TomoTherapy Inc. was installed in the same university where the research began over 15 years ago.
Minesh Mehta, M.D., UW professor of Human Oncology, has been a TomoTherapy user since 2001. He has overseen the transition from the world’s first clinical TomoTherapy research system to the upgrade of a production Hi·Art System in 2004.

When St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown, MD, wanted to boost its lagging MRI volume, it went to an extreme. The 105-bed rural hospital became the 100th purchaser of an ONI Medical Systems high-field, high-performance dedicated MRI extremity scanner, relying on it as a cost-effective and practical complement to its seven-year-old whole-body MRI device.

When opening a new imaging outpatient center or expanding and improving on current services and business capabilities, it is hard to imagine an operator can prosper without a Radiology Information System (RIS).

As if RSNA wasn’t big enough, expect it to be even bigger this year. As the scope of radiology widens, so does the category of radiology subspecialties. RSNA 2006 has designed its program to reflect this change, adding to its curriculum important research across multiple radiology subspecialties – cardiac radiology, emergency radiology, neuroradiology, vascular and interventional radiology, breast/mammography, gastrointestinal radiology and genitourinary radiology, to name just a few.

It’s impossible to underestimate or overemphasize the importance of patient safety. Regardless of the latest innovative technology, the ability to protect patients begins and ends with effective, timely and correct communications.

Maintaining the financial health of your radiology practice is key to helping you address the physical health of your patients. After all, if your group practice is ailing financially, no one stands to gain any long-term benefits. Ensuring the ongoing viability of your practice is not always simple, but it need not be burdensome. Like a plan or a scan related to physical health, if you establish a regimen, continually track vital indicators and receive regular checkups, then the financial health of your practice is within reach.


As the saying goes, “if we build it, they will come.” That is, assuming we live in a perfect world made of baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. In today’s competitive climate, a physician cannot afford the risk of following such a credo. A successful practice requires forethought, forward thinking and proactive action to sustain profitable numbers. One cannot adopt a passive stance and assume patients will just flock to your door. Those days are long gone…if they really ever existed.

Imaging modalities and applications are going where they’ve never gone before. More than ever, healthcare providers are able to bring sophisticated imaging equipment to the patient, rather than vice versa.


With the adoption of PACS within multiple departments across the enterprise and its increasing operation across distributed environments, PACS is rapidly evolving into the model for enterprise-wide image management. It is no wonder the imaging community feels it is time for PACS to have a ‘name-lift’, one that would take away the connotation carried over by the word ‘PACS’, that is, that of a departmental system for radiology or cardiology alone.
Changing Paradigms
Stock image heart
3-D volume rendering showing mid left anterior descending artery (LAD) stenosis, created using TeraRecon software
3-D volume rendering showing mid left anterior descending artery (LAD) stenosis, created using TeraRecon software.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Each year, approximately eight million patients are seen in the emergency room for chest pain. About 25 percent have acute myocardial infarction (MI) or unstable angina, 25 percent have stable angina, and up to 50 percent have noncardiac chest pain. The cost is over $3 billion for those without acute diseases. Unfortunately, at the same time, about five percent of patients with MI are sent home from the ER, which results in 20 percent of malpractice payout.
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