Using MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy or cryoablation methods may serve as new treatment options for cancer recurrence after surgical removal of the prostate gland, according to research presented at the 35th annual Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) scientific meeting in Tampa, Fla. This is because improved detection of early prostate cancer recurrence is best seen through MRI, researchers said.

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has released its Guidelines for Standard Order Sets to help organizations ensure that the elements of safe order communication have been followed when designing paper-based or electronic order sets. Focused primarily on medication orders, the guidelines also cover general aspects related to the design, approval and maintenance of all standard order sets.

GE Healthcare has unveiled the Mars virtual sleep lab, to provide a view of quantitative cardiac and sleep apnea analysis from any GE-monitored inpatient bed.

Completely integrated, standardized, interoperable healthcare technology systems will never happen, even if every healthcare entity were to adopt the same IT systems from the same vendor. Why bother to try? Because increasingly, not interoperating is not an option.

Health Care Service Corporation has announced that its CareProfile electronic health record can help physicians and healthcare facilities identify health risks for 9 million patients across the country.

ATLANTAA wireless monitoring system that automatically sends information about an abnormal heart rhythm from a device in the patients chest to the cardiologists office significantly cuts the time between when a problem arises and a treatment decision is made, according to the CONNECT trial presented today during the late-breaking clinical trials sessions at the American College of Cardiologys (ACC) 59th annual conference. Slides

The Senate this week voted to expand the number of eligible physicians who might receive incentive payments for the meaningful use of health IT under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This is welcome news for the wide range of clinicians who have asked for such an expansion, but its not the end of the discussion by any means.

A high percentage of CT and MRI examinations are not meeting appropriateness criteria and subsequently yielding negative results, which suggests a need for tools to help primary care physicians hone their imaging decision requests, according to a recent article in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.