Several recent studies make clear the need for the voice of experience in the drive to improve care and lower costs through better management of images. Theres plenty of room for improvement, and IT leadership should pay attention to whats going on in the radiology department.

UC Health has appointed Anil Jain, MD, FACP, as senior vice president and CMIO. Jain, who currently serves as a senior executive and physician at the Cleveland Clinic, is a nationally recognized leader in the area of health IT, informatics and analytics. He will serve as UC Healths first CMIO and will lead the transformation of the systems IT infrastructure, according to the Cincinnati-based healthcare organization.

Extracting patient data that already exists in EMRs could expedite the process of collecting data for genetic studies, according to Electronic Medical Records for Genetic Research: Results of the eMERGE Consortium, a study published in Science Translational Medicine.

There is no getting around it: One financial challenge hospitals and health systems will face going forward is planning to demonstrate the meaningful use of IT and making sure the investment can be leveraged for the system’s goals of improved care and efficiency. Meeting federal meaningful use standards, however, is only the start of a long journey

What does the accountable care organization discussion mean to you? Its been the phrase du jour for many months, and since the ACO guidelines were announced at the end of March, ACO-focused news and analysis have hit flood level. Academics, industry analysts, providers and payors are trying to decipher CMS 400-plus pages of proposed rules that will shape ACOs. Their revelations cover many aspects of these proposed organizations and some of the findings are contradictory. Consider:

The American Telemedicine Association announced today the winners of the 2011 ATA Annual Awards. The awards recognize individuals and organizations for their contributions to the development of telemedicine.

Mach 7 Technologies (M7T) has collaborated with Montefiore Medical Center to deploy its Keystone Engine to improve mammography reading workflow.

European medical imaging markets are forecasted to exceed $5.6 billion by 2017, according to a new report from TriMarkPublications.