Imaging
This is the third annual "Benchmarks" columns to focus on imaging technology. Each one has been timed for November, to coincide with the mammoth RSNA Annual Meeting – it celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 at McCormick Place in Chicago – and each one has had more or less the same theme: the market is pretty much saturated when it comes to RIS and PACS systems, but change is on the way.
While workflow engines are common in other industries, healthcare has so far made limited use of them. At RSNA 2014 on Tuesday, one Mayo Clinic radiologist made the case for these efficiency tools, and showed how a changing medical landscape may soon see them finding favor -- in radiology departments and beyond.
The American College of Radiology and Massachusetts General Hospital will leverage the Nuance Communications' PowerShare Network, Nuance announced Monday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual convention.
Weill Cornell's Keith Hentel, MD, will be the first to tell you: His radiology department intentionally failed to meet Stage 1 of meaningful use. They could have done it. But it would have meant pouring already limited resources into something that "doesn't really move our practice anywhere in the right direction," he said.
In most of the country, it is still nearly impossible to compare the price and quality of anything in healthcare. Websites that mine such data are springing up to fill the void. But thanks to a law enacted in October, Massachusetts health insurers now have to make all their prices public -- in advance.
Nuance Communications has shared 3 billion medical images through its cloud-based PowerShare Network, a feat company executives hail as "an industry-first milestone."
Over the past few decades the physical diagnosis skills that were once the cornerstone of doctoring have withered, supplanted by a dizzying array of sophisticated, expensive tests, according to medical educators.
As the volume and variety of medical images increases, providers are looking for better ways to store and access them. Vendor neutral archives are fast finding favor -- but in many respects the jury is still out on just what a VNA is and what it should offer.
In one of the first large-scale empirical studies on the links between HIE participation and imaging in hospital emergency departments, researchers found redundant CT scans, X-rays and ultrasounds decreased fairly significantly -- with savings in the millions of dollars.
The U.S. Defense Department has furthered its investments in digital radiography and medical imaging systems after awarding a one-year, $70.2 million contract to imaging provider Carestream Health.