New X-Ray from Canadian Startup Could Replace CT Scan for Lung Cancer Screening
Grand River Hospital in Waterloo, Ontario is introducing a portable multi-energy x-ray imager as an alternative to CT scan for lung cancer screening. The makers of the device claim it to be cost-effective and emit 50 times less radiation than a CT scan.The creators of the x-ray are KA Imaging, a Canada-based startup with a robust and innovative range of medical imaging products. Previously, they were awarded $1 million Canadian dollarsfrom the Grand Challenges Canada fund to develop a LCD-based x-ray that uses less radiation and is cheaper to manufacture." With our single X-ray, you sort of walk up to the X-ray, they get...
Source: radRounds - November 27, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Alleged Radiology Services Kickback Scheme Lawsuit Settled in Montana
Bozeman Health, a group of healthcare centers in Southern Montana, reached a settlement on October 31 with two of the hospital ’s former radiologists for allegedly submitting millions of dollars in illegal claims to Medicare and Medicaid.The lawsuit filed in 2015 was introduced under the False Claims Act by radiologists Frank Rembert, MD, and Michael Paradise, MD, who are receiving $66,869 from the settlement. The Department of Public Health and Human Services will be given $238,820.The claim alleges that Bozeman Health had an exclusive contract to operate radiology services with Intercity Radiology, a local radiology pr...
Source: radRounds - November 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Radiology Crisis in the UK Forces 56,000 Angina Patients to Forgo CT Scans
In the United Kingdom, around 56,000 patients with angina, a chest condition that can decrease blood flow to the heart, were unable to undergo necessary CT scans last year due to the region ’s radiologist shortage.According to a recent review from the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and the British Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (BSCI), there should have been 132,090 CT coronary angiography (CTCA) tests performed throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 2017. However, only 75,791 —or 57 percent — of those tests were administered.Approximately 69,900 scans were performed in England, the high...
Source: radRounds - November 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Using MRI to Understand the Linguistics of Beatboxing
Researchers at the University of Southern California are using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to understand how beatbox artists make their rapid and precise percussion sounds. They recently presented their project at the Acoustical Society of America meeting.Linguists have long struggled to understand how exactly beatboxers produce certain sounds. The researchers wanted to fill in this knowledge gap by creating MRI videos that can show how the velum, tongue, and vocal cords create these extraterrestrial-seeming noises.The shadowy MRI videos demonstrate exactly how the beatboxers make the clicking, popping, trilling, and ...
Source: radRounds - November 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
MRI in Adult Clinic Proven to Be Effective in Diagnosing Pediatric Appendicitis
Researchers have found that unenhanced Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for child patients with appendicitis in an adult clinical setting is effective and accurate, according to a study recently published in theAmerican College of Roentgenology.Taking into account positive outcomes using ultrasound and CT to evaluate children with appendicitis, researchers from the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Fort Sam in Houston, Texas wanted to see if MRI could be practical procedure for diagnosing the emergency medical condition.The study authors looked at pediatric patient data between 2012 and 2016 and found that 528 childre...
Source: radRounds - November 10, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
fMRI Helps Us Understand How We Interpret Social Signals
Through the use of fMRI, researchers have discovered that the brain generates negative responses faster and more effortlessly than positive reactions, according to a studyrecently published inSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.Human beings have slower or faster reaction times depending on the kind of emotional cues they ’re observing. Researchers from the University of Nebraska sought out to understand how the amygdala, the region in the brain associated with emotion, behaves when people see faces expressing happiness, anger, or surprise.To start off, the researchers asked 51 white participants who were all be...
Source: radRounds - November 10, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
A Long Island Imaging Center Faces Fraud Allegations
A lawsuit has been filed against Diagnostic Imaging of Rockville Centre and Rockville Centre Diagnostic Imaging, two medical imaging facilities in Long Island New York, for allegedly billing Allstate Insurance companies for $1.3 million in fraudulent charges.On October 18,Allstate Insurance Co., Allstate Indemnity Co., Allstate Property& Casualty Insurance Co., and Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. filed complaints in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the imaging centers for alleged fraud among other counts. According to Allstate ’s claim, Diagnostic Rockville Centre...
Source: radRounds - November 10, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
MRI Installation Causes iPhones to Go Haywire but not Androids. Why?
One day in early October, around 40 Apple phones, tablets, and watches belonging to staff at Morris Hospital in Illinois stopped working while a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine was being installed. The mysterious mass shut down had to do with how helium interacts with the devices ’ microelectromechanical system.A systems administrator at the hospital, Eric Woolridge was perplexed when his colleagues ’ iPhones “seemed completely dead” that day, until he realized that the helium that’s boiled when installing the MRI could have something to do with it. Typically, the helium is released out of the facili...
Source: radRounds - November 3, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Should Wellness Days Be a Regular Part of Radiology Residency Programs?
No one has ever complained about taking a mental health day, which is why it ’s not surprising that 87 percent of radiology residents have reported that “wellness days” can decrease or prevent feelings of burnout, according to a studyrecently published in theJournal of the American College of Radiology.Researchers from the radiology department at Emory University ’s School of Medicine redistributed five wellness days from residents’ standard 12 sick days. The purpose of the wellness days was to give residents time to take care of their physical and mental health or take care of “self-care activities.” Reside...
Source: radRounds - November 3, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Using MRI to Understand How Electrical Stimulation Heals Stomach Problems
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is helping doctors comprehend how electrical stimulation helps alleviate stomach problems, a phenomenon that experts had previously struggled to visualize, according to research recently published inNeurogastroenterology& Motility.Stimulating the vagus nerve with an electric impulse manipulates the speed in which the stomach empties, a method that can effectively cure gastroparesis. As a part of Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC), a project funded by the National Institutes of Health and carried out at four academic institutions, the Purdue University group cr...
Source: radRounds - November 3, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Researchers are Using Non-Invasive Antenna for MRI
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are taking magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to new levels. By using a tiny radio antenna implanted in the brain as a sensor, they can detect electrical currents and light generated by luminescent proteins, according to a study published this week inNature Biomedical Engineering.“MRI offers a way to sense things from the outside of the body in a minimally invasive fashion. It does not require a wired connection into the brain,” saidthe study ’s lead author Aviad Hai, PhD, a postdoc working in Alan Jasanoff, PhD’s, brain imaging lab. “We can implant the se...
Source: radRounds - October 26, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Dutch Medical Startup to Develop MRI That Visualizes Soft Tissue and Bone
MRIGuidance, a med-tech company spun out of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, has just been granted $1.9 million in seed investment for a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) software called BoneMRI that can analyze soft tissue and bone without radiation.MRI is traditionally used to image soft tissue, and x-ray-based technology is used for bone scans. However, this new software can use MRI scanners to generate three-dimensional images of human bone that are akin to CT-images in one single exam.The investment comes from Health Innovations, a coalition of Dutch financial and healthcare groups, and a ...
Source: radRounds - October 26, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Should Radiology Curricula be More Self-Paced?
Self-paced curricula for fourth-year medical students in a radiology clerkship could be a more effective form of learning, according to a studyrecently published in theJournal of the American College of Radiology.Otherwise known as the “flipped classroom” learning method, this model involves self-paced, independent learning guided by live didactic instruction and instructors who use class time to “guide knowledge application.” This method is drastically different from conventional teaching practices that involve lectures a nd homework.“Students have largely expressed satisfaction in flipped classroom learning a...
Source: radRounds - October 26, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
New Ultrasound Tech Software Auto-Populates Measurements and Decreases Report Errors
Using a transfer-software tool to auto-populate ultrasound measurement increases accuracy and reduces time and money spent on creating reports, according to a new studypublished inCurrent Problems in Diagnostic Radiology. Ultrasound technologists and radiologists tediously write, check, and edit measurements that are recorded by hand or dictated from worksheets. This process is susceptible to errors that can influence results.Researchers from the Montefiore Medical Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine wanted to decrease the time spent on this process, so they introduced a software that would auto-fill the ...
Source: radRounds - October 23, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Siemens ’ MAGNETOM Sola Granted FDA Clearance
Siemens has just received Food and Drug Administration clearance for itsMAGNETOM Sola, a 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner. It features BioMatrix technology, which is designed to accommodate a wide variety of patient bodies.The BioMatrix Sensors are able to assess the patient ’s body specifications as they lay down on the table, making it easy for technicians to determine which scanning procedures to administer. The built-in breathing sensors make it unnecessary to use navigators with breath-triggered sequences. The BioMatrix Turners have integrated hardware and softwa re elements that diminish distortion when imaging the head, neck...
Source: radRounds - October 19, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
