OAK BROOK, IL – Systems engineers from 64 leading healthcare technology vendors, including GE Healthcare, Siemens, IBM, McKesson, Hologic, Misys, Philips, Kodak and [newly GE Healthcare-acquired] IDX Systems, convened in the basement of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) headquarters in mid-January to cross competitor lines and test the interoperability of their PACS and electronic healthcare record (EHR) systems.

As a successful, independent, three-site imaging center conducting more than 60,000 outpatient procedures each year in one of the most competitive regions in the country, Hackensack Radiology Group (HRG) is used to big goals and even bigger challenges.


What’s so intriguing about extremity imaging that Hologic is delving into it with such intensity and passion?
If you know Hologic, you know we are a company filled with associates that act with intensity and with passion. Hologic associates share a common goal – the desire to extend the lives of women through the development of technologically superior diagnostic imaging systems.

Breast biopsy rates grew quite dramatically during the latter part of the 20th century, and radiologists performed the majority of those procedures, according to a new Medicare database analysis. But as has been the case of late, radiologists did have to contend with some competition in this arena.
Probing a Surgical Future with Less Invasive Tools

Prior to the mid-1990s, clinicians could choose from a limited number of devices to biopsy palpable and nonpalpable abnormalities in the breast. Those choices centered around the open surgical biopsy technique, which necessitated pre-operative preparation, anesthesia and post-operative recovery. Hard-to-find lesions, however, required needle localization before surgery could commence. In short, the standard breast biopsy was a time-consuming and very involved procedure.

Editor’s Note: Exploring IGRT is the result of a “virtual” roundtable discussion on image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) with notable radiation oncology experts Drs. Rod Ellis, Dan Low, Todd McNutt, George Starkschall and Charles Smith.

The Knoxville Comprehensive Breast Center (KCBC) in Knoxville, TN, was founded in 1983 for the sole purpose of improving the delivery of breast care. The materialization of this vision involves performing all the needed diagnostic breast studies in a single visit. This dedication to improved patient care has earned KCBC a solid reputation and an impressive patient return rate.
As part of this ongoing model of patient care, in the summer of 2004 KCBC replaced its on-site analog film mammography units with two Hologic Selenia digital mammography systems.


It’s like a never-ending battle — that’s how Lena Napolitano, M.D., describes the recent and sharp rise in nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.
The professor in the department of surgery at the University of Michigan said MRSA is now the most frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and surgical wound infections, as well as the most common gram-positive bacteria in hospitals today.

Electronic medical information improves patient safety by providing immediate and complete access to complex patient information. Having access to information reduces medical errors — yet three decades have elapsed since the electronic medical record (EMR) was first conceived and 16 years have passed since the Institute of Medicine's report called for EMRs.
But time isn’t the only thing littering the long road to EMR.

An invaluable tool for radiology, cardiology and various other departments throughout the enterprise, PACS is now in hot demand in the OR as well. The speedy — and spontaneous — access to any and all patient images during a surgical procedure is a key lure for bringing PACS into the OR, one of the last destinations for PACS technology.
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