By Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.

“Disruptive innovation” is all the buzz. Repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is so last year. Well, disrupt this: Repeal Medicare and Medicaid and get the government out of the medical care business.

Established in 1970, Sovah Health – Martinsville, Va., resides in the foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains caring for not only the people of Martinsville, but those of surrounding locales as well. The full-service, acute care hospital is licensed for 220 beds and provides medical services such as behavioral health, cancer care, orthopedics, surgical services, rehabilitation and more. The nearby Martinsville International Speedway has an audience capacity of 60,000 and conducts major race events throughout the year.


Over the last several years in the U.S., healthcare providers have been trying to shift their focus to more preventive care to keep healthcare costs down. This has placed a greater emphasis on screening large segments of the population for various diseases in an attempt to catch them earlier. Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening has emerged as a powerful tool in the early detection of lung cancer, following a B rating by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in 2013. 

One of the Northeast’s major teaching hospitals is an international leader in virtually every area of medicine. It has been the site of pioneering breakthroughs that have improved lives and advanced healthcare around the world. This hospital includes more than 100 outpatient practices with more than 1,000 physicians serving patients from New England, across the United States, and from more than 100 countries around the world.

As soon as the Compressed SENSE technology became available to the MRI team at Kantonsspital Winterthur (Switzerland), the site started applying the acceleration possibilities for their MRI scans of the brain, spine and joints, as well as pelvis and abdomen. Using Compressed SENSE appeared a simple yet powerful way to accelerate MRI scanning for different contrast types and sequences, in 2-D as well as 3-D. The significantly reduced scan times convinced the team to plan for adjusting all their ExamCards, with the objective to shorten patient timeslots and then actually plan for increasing their number of MRI patients per day. This is of strategic importance to help them generate revenue when reimbursements go down.

The arrow in this image points to the prostate cancer.
A treatment room equipped with IBA’s compact Proteus One solution, comprising the latest technology of image guided, intensity modulated proton therapy.

According to the latest statistics from the American Cancer Society (ACS), almost 165,000 new cases of prostate cancer were expected in 2018, with over 29,000 men expected to die from the disease this year
The Siemens Biograph Vision PET-CT system was released in mid-2018.
A myocardial perfusion exam performed on the Siemens Biograph Vision PET-CT system.

Nuclear imaging technology for both single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) have made advancements in the past couple years. The main drivers for this have been a movement to digital imaging detectors to improve image quality and address radiation dose concerns, reimbursement and radiotracer supply issues. Other advancements have come in the areas of software to improve image reconstruction quality, offer better clinical qualification and analytics data.

For the sixth consecutive year, Mount Sinai will serve as the official medical services provider for the 2018 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Healthcare professionals from the hospital supporting the tournament will include orthopedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians and musculoskeletal radiologists deploying the latest technology and expertise.


While working with a patient with Crohn’s disease in my gastroenterology practice, I nearly ordered a computed tomography (CT) scan for her as I began to formulate a plan. After talking with her, I discovered she had received 18 CT scans at multiple hospitals in the prior three years. As a physics major, I knew medical radiation was potentially harmful, but nowhere was that harm calculated and put into real terms for me to assimilate in my plan.
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