MRI may aid physicians in the early diagnosis, staging and treatment of diabetes, according to research in this month's American Journal of Roentgenology.

Advanced visualization technology aided diagnostic interpretation during the U.K. MRI in Breast Screening (MARIBS) trial, which recruited 732 women--who had at least a 50 percent risk of being a breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1), BRCA2 or TP53 gene mutation carrier--for an annual breast MRI and two-view mammogram over a nearly seven-year period (Aug. 1997- March, 2003).

Whole-body high-field MRI is a reliable option for post-mortem examination of human fetuses and might provide a non-invasive alternative to conventional autopsy, according to a U.K. study published online Aug. 6 in Lancet.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has signed into law a bill requiring medical imaging professionals who provide sonography and MRI to have state licenses.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the Health Industry Business Communications Councils new standard for using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for medical products.

Open-source programmers will be getting together on Aug. 27 for the first CONNECT Code-A-Thon at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, D.C., with the goal of developing software that can eventually be used for a Nationwide Health Information Network.

Boston Scientific has reported positive financial earnings for its fiscal 2009 second quarter, which ended June 30. The Natick, Mass.-based medical device company booked a net income of $158 million this quarter, compared with $98 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Facing the same 'meaningful use' deadlines as larger organizations but with only a few viable vendor options, critical-access hospitals (hospital with 50 or fewer beds) are eager for more IT power, according to a report from market research firm KLAS.