May 9, 2017 — More than 100 radiation oncologists from across the United States took to Capitol Hill last week urging Congress to grow its investment in cancer research and to protect patients’ access to high-quality cancer care. The doctors were in Washington to meet with Congressional leaders as part of the 14th annual Advocacy Day organized by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Radiation oncologists emphasized four priorities as they met with policymakers and their staffers:

Management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and data science company Kaggle recently announced the winners of the third annual Data Science Bowl, a competition that harnesses the power of data science and crowdsourcing to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems. This year’s challenge brought together nearly 10,000 participants from across the world. Collectively they spent more than an estimated 150,000 hours and submitted nearly 18,000 algorithms — all aiming to help medical professionals detect lung cancer earlier and with better accuracy.

May 5, 2017 — Kubtec announced that its contract to be a supplier to Vizient Inc. is now active.

Under the terms of contract XR0453, Vizient’s membership of academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute healthcare providers, have access to Kubtec’s complete portfolio of cabinet digital radiography (DR) X-ray systems, neonatal imaging systems and irradiators.

IBA announced that building works have begun on the Proton Therapy Center ParTICLe – Belgium’s first center for proton therapy. ParTICLe, short for Particle Therapy Interuniversity Center Leuven, is a clinical and scientific collaboration between five university hospitals.

A low-dose lung CT scan can be used to help detect mesothelioma.

The term mesothelioma was coined in 1909, just a few years after the introduction of medical X-ray imaging. The term was developed after thousands of autopsies, numerous discoveries and significant research linked asbestos to a deadly form of cancer. As X-ray technology developed further, the framework for diagnosis and understanding the pathology of mesothelioma was established in 1931.

A trend that has already taken shape in other industries now may be on the cusp of radiology. Tuned to exactly fit their users’ desires, mobile devices — purchased by their users — promise to display medical images anywhere at any time and at a moment’s notice. They are part of a broad-based bring your own device (BYOD) trend. And the BYOD most likely to have an impact is the iPad. 

ABUS

Over the last decade, the impact of dense fibroglandular breast tissue on breast cancer screening has become a prominent topic of national conversation among those fighting the disease. Screening is the first line of defense for patients, and the realization that their mammography results may not be accurate has caused concern. While mammography remains the gold standard for breast cancer detection and diagnosis, the “one-size-fits-all” approach of years past has evolved as patients and providers drive toward more personalized screening programs. While several technologies and other new developments have propelled this idea forward, automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) has gone a long way toward cementing the idea of patient-specific breast cancer screening protocols and programs.
cyber crime cybersecurity in radiology, healthcare and medicine

The radiology landscape is pocked with cyber mines. And it’s getting worse. Legacy imaging systems are connected to picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), which are being linked to electronic medical record (EMR) systems and best of breed IT systems, as hospitals increasingly move to enterprise imaging. These make tempting targets for hackers. And the worsening situation is being caused by the best intentions.

Bethesda Health in southwest Florida has leveraged its picture archiving and communication system (PACS) to improve medical imaging workflow and efficiency. This has led to cost savings, shortened turnaround times (TAT) and improved analytics to enable better business management. Bethesda Health is based in Boynton, Fla., and includes Bethesda Hospital East and West hospitals with a total of 481 beds, plus the Bethesda Health Urgent Care.  

remote viewing systems allow mobile access for radiology imaging

The implementation of electronic health records (EHR) has created an expectation that all patient data, including images, should be available in one location. Today, reports describing images are not enough, as many referring physicians want to see the images, and many use them to help guide therapies. This has caused an increased demand to exchange medical images in the various departments of healthcare settings. 
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