Imaging cuts in the administrations deficit reduction proposal would restrict patient access to care and may actually raise costs, according to the American College of Radiology (ACR). The college has urged the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reject the Obama administrations imaging recommendations and work with the ACR and other imaging stakeholders to create policies that ensure safe, appropriate care, promote quality and protect patient access.

The FDA has scheduled a public workshop on MRI safety for Oct. 25 and 26. Sessions will cover strategies to minimize risk to patients and staff in the MRI environment, and touch on such topics as working with ferromagnetic detectors and scanning patients with MRI-compatible implants.

Launched last fall with 18 students enrolled, the biomedical engineering program at the University of Delaware has gained increasing interest from students, growing 194 percent in its first semester and 511 percent in over one year. The program now has 110 incoming freshman and sophomores, and a wait list for entry into the major, according to the university.

A nationwide U.S. survey found that women overwhelmingly want the option for additional screening tests to find cancer early, even when testing resulted in a false positive. Nine out of 10 women who required a biopsy to determine a false positive indicated that they would still opt for the additional screening the following year.

The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) was awarded money from the Commerce Departments International Trade Administration Market Development Cooperator program to increase exports and expand access to diagnostic medical imaging, radiation therapy and radiopharmaceuticals in new markets.

Interoperability is expanding in many hospitals, but one cant clearly know exactly where to look to observe it in each stage of development as it matures, says James P. Keller Jr., vice president of health technology evaluation and safety at ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pa, who presented at the Center for Business Innovations recent conference on medical device connectivity at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The MRI technique called SWIFT (Sweep Imaging with Fourier Transformation) appears feasible to help provide a 3D assessment that may aid in detecting invasion of the mandible by oral cancer, according to a study in the September issue of Archives of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

While the most common medical application for data reconciliation is in pharmaceutical reconciliation, this concept can be applied to the delivery of medical imaging services, which begins with order entry and ends with reporting and communication, according to an article published in the September edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.