A federal judge from Texas has ordered Johnson & Johnson, and its subsidiary Cordis, to pay $482 million to radiologist Bruce Saffran, MD, after the jury found that the company infringed Saffrans patent (No. 5,363,760)Method and Apparatus for Managing Macromolecular Distribution.

Having advanced images available in an electronic record will evolve from cutting-edge technology to requirement eventually. However, getting complex images into everyday workflows will require answers to questions such as, how will these data-intense images be stored? How will they be kept secure? And perhaps most important, are these images necessary for improving daily care?

Radiologist attendance at RSNA 2010 totaled 15,801, setting a new high bar in the meetings history.

After a long and muddled fight, a U.S. District Court in Minnesota has sentenced Guidant, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boston Scientific, to three years probation for failing to report serious safety problems to the FDA regarding three models of its implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). The company also must pay more than $296 million in criminal fines.

As CMIO celebrated the end of 2010, we were also looking ahead to what promises to be a pivotal year for healthcare in general and healthcare IT in particular.

Data cards containing information about more than 2,200 patients were lost at Mountain View Medical Center, a 178-bed hospital in Mesa, Ariz. In a notice posted on the hospitals website Dec. 10, the hospital reported that the compact memory cards were misplaced from two endoscopy machines, and it became aware of the problem on Oct. 13.

The use of transvaginal ultrasound to measure endometrial thickness may be an effective method of screening for endometrial cancer and atypical endometrial hyperplasia, according to a study published in the December edition of The Lancet.

The Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services has published payments  from pharmaceutical and medical device companies to physicians and healthcare providers in Massachusetts in an online database, as mandated by a code of conduct state law.