Writing on the Health IT Buzz blog, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, eviscerated the study published this week in Health Affairs that concluded that electronic access to medical imaging and lab results led doctors to order more imaging and blood tests.

Widespread belief that modern technology will drive cost-saving efforts has rationalized recent federal investments to increase health IT adoption, but research published in the March issue of Health Affairs contradicts that belief, revealing that the ability to view imaging results electronically correlated with more orders for diagnostic imaging.

Neuroimaging practices for stroke patients may be unnecessarily costly and redundant, with substantial increases in MRI utilization supplementing, rather than replacing, CT use, according to a study published in the February edition of Annals of Neurology.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued a request for public comment on privacy and security issues and best practices related to the use of mobile devices by providers and other healthcare professionals to access, store and transmit health information.

The University of South Florida has opened a $38 million, 90,000-square-foot center in Tampa for training physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will provide up to $20 million in grant funding to support an international clinical trial to examine the effectiveness of MRI-guided radiosurgery as a treatment for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

The Pink Lotus Breast Center, a breast center focused on the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, has unveiled GE Healthcare's SenoBright, contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) technology at its flagship breast center in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Heart Failure Society of America's Guideline Committee updated its guidelines for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), concluding that evidence supports the use of CRT in patients with less severe heart failure (HF) symptoms. The guideline update appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Cardiac Failure.