According to healthcare industry officials, cutbacks in the Medicare program to freestanding imaging centers could have ill effects on Medicare patients, and possibly force some smaller imaging centers out of business. The American College of Radiology (ACR) estimates that freestanding imaging centers will lose money on 87 percent of all scans they perform on Medicare patients if the cuts remain.

MRI is now being used by doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital for fighting breast cancer. After diagnosis, MRI can be used to further determine the size and scope of the breast cancer.
Dr. William Smith and Dr. Marc Inciardi are dedicated breast radiologists at the university hospital that have been working with new software for the MRI machine designed for breast cancer patients.

A study in the July issue of Radiology reported researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School in Boston and Beneficencia Portuguesa Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil have discovered a new cardiac MRI technique that can noninvasively demonstrate blockage of the coronary arteries yielding an accuracy of 88 percent compared to the current diagnostic standard. The research was done to try and find a noninvasive way to determine if the invasive approach is necessary.

Five American Healthcare Radiology Administrators (AHRA) members were honored by GE Healthcare and AHRA for their exceptional innovation, leadership, administrative capabilities and sharing of expertise and experience. The GE Healthcare Award for Excellence is sponsored by AHRA and GE Healthcare, and recipients receive a crystal trophy, a blue blazer embroidered with the Award for Excellence logo and $2,000 donated in their name to the AHRA Education Foundation courtesy of GE.