Imaging technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last few years with enhancements in multimodality imaging, image-guided radiotherapy and with new applications for CT and MR in cardiology. Medical imaging, as a result, is gaining widespread acceptance as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool across multiple specialties, including radiology, oncology, cardiology, pathology, nuclear medicine and more.

Image fusion of molecular and anatomic data has proven extremely useful for diagnosis and treatment in radiology, neurology, oncology and cardiology, enabling localization of tumors and lesions, planning for radiotherapy, biopsy and surgery, and in new applications in CT angiography.

The market for PACS implementation services was earmarked to reach $273 million in 2005, representing more than twenty percent of the total PACS market, according to the 2004 North American Turnkey PACS Markets report by Frost & Sullivan. Numbers like these testify that PACS is becoming more of a services industry, in which PACS is no longer seen as a product but rather as a solution that incorporates the related services. Among these services is data migration, or the transfer of data from one archive system to another.

Knowledge is power. And patients are acquiring that power. An informed patient today might ask a physician before undergoing an exam, “Does your MRI have 3-D imaging support?” Or simply, “Is the equipment safe?”

Nuclear medicine (NM) was one of the first imaging modalities to offer all-digital acquisition and processing, achieve general agreement on image data and header formats, and develop a modality specific DICOM Image Object Definition (IOD). Yet PACS and DICOM viewer vendors seem to be stumped when trying to implement displays for NM data.

The need for orthopedic care in the U.S. has grown considerably in recent years, due in large part to an aging population and an almost obsessive, albeit well-intentioned, preoccupation with physical fitness. Orthopedics now includes subspecialties, such as joint replacement and sports medicine, terms that 30 years ago may have solicited a quizzical “huh?” from the average citizen. But today, almost everyone knows someone who has had knee or hip replacement, and thanks to their man-made prostheses, scores of recipients are once again enjoying life’s most simple pleasures.
An EHR provides access to clinical information at one time from one place.
An EHR provides access to clinical information at one time from one place.
An EHR provides access to clinical information at one time from one place.
STOCK IMAGE

Long before U.S. President George W. Bush emphasized the importance of the electronic health record (EHR), cancer treatment centers understood the value of accessing patient information anytime and anywhere.
As radiation oncology becomes more dependent upon images to further guide advanced therapies like Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), complex treatment plans are modified or updated as patient response to treatment is gauged, and an enterprise-wide EHR provides immediate access to those updates that are so critical to quality patient care.

CT multislice modalities have turned up the volume of the already dense stacks of reports radiologists must thoroughly examine, and unless a hospital can increase the number of trained techs on staff, more radiologists are relying on computer-aided detection (CAD) to assist in detecting suspicious nodules in the lung. While R2 Technology’s ImageChecker CAD Lung CT solution meets the growing need for CAD technology in radiology, Terry Chang, director of CT CAD Marketing, R2 Technology, explains how it is just the tip of the iceberg for the clinical applications for CAD.

Forty-five percent of the rise in Medicare spending between 1999-2003 was attributed to medical imaging. Although the Stark Law prohibits physician self-referrals, some lawmakers charge physicians with unnecessarily referring patients for imaging exams in order to refer them to outpatient centers where the physician is financially vested, thus incrementing the rise in Medicare costs.

When Claude Bernard inserted a mercury thermometer into the carotid artery of a horse to measure blood temperature in 1844, little did he know he was laying the foundation for present day catheter angiography. Even though his practices were rudimentary compared to today’s standards, and it was not until 1929 that basic radiographic methods were implemented, he provided a stepping-stone into the current world of catheters and in turn, vascular imaging.
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