Positron emission tomography (PET) and other brain assessments are becoming staples of the legal system. That isn’t good. 

President Donald J. Trump and the Republican-led Congress have made it loud and clear that they want to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed into law in 2010 by former president Barak Obama. This historic legislation, more commonly called “Obamacare,” enabled 20 million more Americans to be covered by healthcare insurance. Even those individuals who had a pre-existing medical condition would now be covered under the ACA. The private insurance market in some states, like California, could no longer deny coverage because of a previous medical history. To gain the support of the private health insurance companies, the ACA promised millions of additional new enrollees to spread the financial risk.

The enormity of changes in the field of medical imaging technology is hard to fathom. In an article on this topic, author James H. Thrall, M.D., chairman emeritus, Department of Radiology, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, stated, “For the better part of 100 years, physics was the dominant scientific basis of radiology, and X-ray attenuation was the paramount measurable parameter.” 

While prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among American men — the third leading cause of cancer deaths in that group according to American Cancer Society statistics — it is a complex condition that encompasses a broad range of disease and numerous stages.

With the demand for medical imaging growing exponentially and the prevalence of interventional procedures on the rise, mobile C-arms and the versatility they offer is becoming an important tool for hospitals. On any given day, they could be needed in the OR or radiology department to image any part of the body for a wide variety of procedure.