Radiology groups should strive to create an "experience monopoly" of unique services and relationships that will give them the upper hand when negotiating contracts with hospitals, according to the latest installment of the Profit Center by Mark Weiss.

Legislation has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that would close a loophole in federal law that enables physicians to self-refer patients for imaging studies as long as the exams are performed in their own offices.

Choosing a PACS is often too much like speed dating, according to PACS consultant Michael J. Cannavo. In Part 3 of this series, Cannavo advises on how to get the most out of the onsite visit and nagivate the other complications of PACS decision-making.

Legacy PACS users who still have CD media in their archives may find their disks are not as reliable as their vendors would have them believe, according to research from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.

A new study from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston shows that while PET and MRI work well together in guiding surgery for children with refractory epilepsy, PET may have an edge in several areas.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jul 2 - Combined positron-emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) improves the staging of non-small cell lung cancer and also reduces the numbers of total and futile thoracotomies, Danish researchers report in the July 2 New England Journal of Medicine.

In a move sure to strike fear in the hearts of imaging advocates, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 1 laid out a 90% equipment utilization rate in its proposed rule for the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).

It's do or die for radiology as the specialty struggles to fend off proposals in the U.S. Congress mandating severe cuts in reimbursement. Radiology proponents are predicting economic Armageddon if the cuts are passed, but their arguments may not be strong enough to counter the powerful forces of healthcare reform.

BERLIN - German researchers believe they have found a better way to preserve the best aspects of automated and manual segmentation in CT liver images, according to a presentation at the Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) meeting.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jul 1 - Cervical ultrasound to determine the need for cervical cerclage does not improve outcomes over those obtained with history-indicated placement, according to a report in the June American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jul 1 - Patients may develop obstructive coronary artery lesions in the absence of coronary calcification, according to a report in the July Heart.

BERLIN - It's easy to complain about the insanity of tracking lung nodule changes in multiple CT scans over time, but at least one group is doing something about it, according to a presentation at the Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) meeting.

Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) provides long-term relief for a variety of fibroid symptoms, according to a study by Austrian researchers to be published in the July issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.