MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'imaging'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:48:06 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5182342&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F09%2Ffuture-of-pathology-jim-harrison.html This is a guest blog note by Jim Harrison, M.D., Ph.D. He is a pathologist and Associate Professor at the University of Virginia. It's a repost of a document that he circulated on the Association for Pathology Informatics (API) listserv earlier in the year and is, in part, a compilation of input from other pathologists about anticipated changes in AP and CP. Earlier this summer I posted a request to the API list for thoughts about key changes that might occur in AP and CP within the next five years and how those changes might be best supported by IT. A similar request was passed around in CAP's informatics-related committees, and the results were compiled for distribution to the CAP Pathology Transformation project. I did receive several responses from this list, so I'm summari... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5182342 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:42:49 +0100 5182342 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174615&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fimaging-that-can-reliably-distinguish-between-benign-and-malignant-pancreatic-cysts%2F2011.08.29 Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been demonstrated to be able to differentiate between benign and potentially malignant pancreatic cysts. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Physical Sciences, Inc., Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Brandeis University have published their findings in Biomedical Optics Express. In their study they used surgically removed pancreas specimens of patients with pancreatic cysts to assess them with OCT and compare the results with histology examinations. OCT was able to reveal specific morphological characteristics used to differentiate between the low-risk and high-risk cysts. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Medgadget* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174615 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:00:53 +0100 5174615 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159863&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F08%2Fapathology-informatics-2011-conference-only-six-weeks-away-1.html The second annual Pathology Informatics 2011 conference is only about six weeks away. It will be held in Pittsburgh on October 4-7, 2011. It's the merged version of two prior, long-standing informatics conference, APIII and Lab InfoTech Summit. You can review the entire conference schedule as well as register on-line. Three separate content tracks are being offered: Clinical Information Management, System Support and Connectivity, and Digital Imaging. The 3 1/2 day conference with a venue at the Pittsburgh Wyndham Grand offers an opening day with three workshops, included in the registration fee, 10 plenary lectures, and 27 track lectures. A total of 43 faculty members will participate. Also presented will be about 40 scientific presentations and 15 e-posters that have been selected fr... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159863 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:47:29 +0100 5159863 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159865&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F08%2Fsix-major-disruptions-still-to-come-in-halthcare.html Predictions about strategic shifts in healthcare intrigue me. There is always the question in one's mind about whether you agree with the list. A recent article was labeled as a list of healthcare "disruptions" but otherwise caught my attention (see: 6 Major Disruptions Still To Come In Healthcare). Here's the list stripped of the accompanying brief explanations: Conversion of physicians to electronic health records. Removing the responsibility of records-sharing from the patient. The rise of the genomic signature as part of the medical record. Moving the responsibility [for] care and outcomes from the provider location to the consumer location. The rise of health avatars. The change in physician compensation from fee-for-service to fee-for-outcomes. What interested me... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159865 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:15:33 +0100 5159865 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5140317&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F08%2Fthe-most-important-iphone-app-for-pathologists.html In response to a blog note about iPhone ecosystems (see: The iPhone Effect: Smartphones and Their App Ecosystems Have Changed Everything), a reader, Christopher Metts, asked the following question as a comment: If [you] wanted to create an app for a practicing pathologist, what do you think it should do? It's an interesting question and, for me, the answer seems to be obvious.  However, I need to qualify my answer. First, it will encompass all smart phones and not just the iPhone as well as tablets such as the iPad. Secondly. my response will include two broad functions rather than specific app products. Various apps with these functionalities do exist but I don't want to single out any of them. The two functional categories that come to mind for smartphone/tablets that will ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5140317 Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:42:01 +0100 5140317 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130744&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ffda-approves-ges-newest-ct-scanner%2F2011.08.15 GE Healthcare has received the FDA OK for its Optima CT660 computed tomography (CT) system. The CT660, which is already available in Europe, Latin America and Asia, distinguishes itself by its compact footprint combined with a modular design and low dose imaging. In addition, it is also one of the most energy efficient CT scanners available and has an “environmental design” that eases refurbishment and end-of-life recycling. The scanner itself is scalable from 32 to 128 slices through purchasable options and features automatic table positioning and a color 12-inch integrated gantry display monitor. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Medgadget* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130744 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:05:47 +0100 5130744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5131063&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F08%2Fdeclining-autopsy-rates.html Discussion About Reinventing the Autopsy; Reinventing the Autopsy: CT Imaging as a Routine Part of the Procedure; NYT Highlights the "Virtopsy" Used for All Military Autopsies). The virtopsy would undoubtedly be more accurate than the classic autopsy. It also could be performed less expensively and more quickly. You can refer back to my previous notes for more details about its advantages. It is currently the norm for the U.S. military and also widely adopted in countries such as Switzerland. As noted in the excerpt above, one of the major reasons for the decline in the autopsy rate is that it's time-consuming and thus expensive. It's also an uncompensated hospital service. Needless to say, family members are also often reluctant to allow the procedure on relatives withou... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5131063 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:40:33 +0100 5131063 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096320&cid=t_93454_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fthe-heat-is-on-for-thermal-imaging.html The heat is on – Designer and thermal photographer Joseph Giacomin of Brunel University contacted me about his book – Seeing the World Through 21st Century Eyes. “The book,” he told me, “provides a visual journey through the world around us through the medium of thermal photography, hopefully stimulating questions about both the effect of man’s activity on the environment and the nature of our perceptual relationship with the environment.” The book is at once both scientific and artistic. Not only does it hook into one of the most compelling discoveries – that what we see, what we perceive, is all in our heads, not “out there”, it also shows how modern techniques such as thermography can bridge the divide between scientific constr... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096320 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:30:51 +0100 5096320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096467&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Funitedhealth-improving-rural-healthcare The UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization released a white paper on Modernizing Rural Health Care. To quote from the UHG presser: read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096467 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:18:59 +0100 5096467 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5057936&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F07%2Fascp-job-market-in-pathology.html A recent article on fellowship training in pathology got me thinking about the number of years of postgraduate training that is required for training in pathology and also the job market (see: 2011 Fellowship & Job Market Surveys), Below is an excerpt from the article: Each year the ASCP Resident Council directs [a] survey on fellowships and the job market for pathologists in training, both residents and fellows....This year, 2,591 residents participated in the survey. Competition is tight for fellowships. Similar to both the 2009 and 2010 results, slightly more than half of residents (54 percent) received one fellowship offer; 21 percent received two fellowship offers. But 12 percent of applicants received no offers (up from 10 percent last year). While 59 percent of residents intend ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5057936 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:00:51 +0100 5057936 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050575&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fnew-contrast-agent-provides-better-in-vivo-imaging-of-bacteria%2F2011.07.22 A new contrast agent based on maltodextrin has been developed at Georgia Tech that can provide in vivo imaging of bacteria with a sensitivity two orders of magnitude greater than previously achieved. Unlike most previous methods, the new probes are able to enter bacterial cells by pretending to be food, while avoiding being ingested by the mammalian cells. From Georgia Tech: Maltodextrin-based imaging probes consist of a fluorescent dye linked to maltohexaose, which is a major source of glucose for bacteria. The probes deliver the contrast agent into bacteria through the organism’s maltodextrin transporter, which only exists in bacterial cells and not mammalian cells. In experiments using a rat model, the researchers found that (more…) *This blog post was originally publi... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050575 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:00:13 +0100 5050575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028609&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D302 Wow!  It’s nothing short of revolutionary to combine bioelectromagnetism with acoustics.  The result is an ultrasound device that’s safer than a CT and can provide images that approach MRI quality.  This isn’t the first time I have written on a form of acoustic imaging, and every time I come back to it, it gets better.  Its excellent ability to distinguish between malignant and benign lesions at a fraction of the costs of higher-end systems makes it an exciting topic. Because dissimilar tissues react differently to outside stimuli, each layer will vibrate at its own unique frequency when stimulated.  This can be measured and converted into an image by means of ultrasound detectors.  Researchers have used light, ultrasound, and RF energy for stimulating, and the results from RF ... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028609 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:01:06 +0100 5028609 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028573&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fradiology-needs-reassert-their-it-leadership Radiology groups and imaging centers have been on the leading technology edge for many years. The leadership principles of radiology CEOs and CIOs shine in how they approach: Documenting and streamlining workflows Selecting and implementing technology to enable the workflows Measuring the results and focusing on how to continue to enhance the workflows read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028573 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:50:18 +0100 5028573 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008682&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F07%2Fshould-diagnostic-test-scheduling-be-personalized.html I have posted previous notes about the need for periodic mammograms including the frequency of routine screening based on age (see: Shift to Digital Mammography Results in Increased Patient Recalls; Confusion Caused by Conflating "False Positive" and "Overdiagnosis" in Breast Cancer). Now comes news of research suggesting that mammogram screening should be personalized (see: Mammogram scheduling should be personalized, not based on age alone: study). The article caught my attention because of the use of the term personalized. Here is an excerpt from the article: Mammograms should not be done on a one-size fits all basis, but instead should be personalized based on a woman’s age, the density of her breasts, her family history of breast cancer and other factors includin... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008682 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:12:55 +0100 5008682 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4976006&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D290 Evolving nano technology has come a long way in improving a wide range of medical technology.  Scientists have been using nanostructures on the surface of X-ray tubes to improve their efficiency in converting power to radiation, making X-ray tubes faster and longer lasting while delivering better resolution.  The carbon nano-coating allows the tube to be energized with a fraction of electrical energy and can be turned on and off instantaneously, which results in less heat produced, permitting a smaller, faster device.  The current X-ray tube design has historically not been very efficient in transforming electricity to radiation.  As a result, only 1% of the electrical energy is converted into a usable X-ray and the rest is heat.  Because of this, designs are larger and mechanical shu... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4976006 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:41:13 +0100 4976006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975993&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fgoogle-health-too-early-market Few are surprised by this NY Times headline – Google to End Health Records Service After It Fails to Attract Users. Rumors and expectations of this announcement have been in the market for several months now. Reality has struck. Google Health evaporates. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975993 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:29:15 +0100 4975993 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921569&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fremember-your-story I fell in love with healthcare while working as a radiology technician aide at a well-known imaging center in Dallas during college. I was working late one evening with one of our senior technicians, when I realized the profound opportunity a relationship between healthcare and technology could provide. No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921569 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:45:59 +0100 4921569 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902700&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F06%2Fweb-vido-chats-as-an-important-component-of-patient-care.html This article instead emphasizes the need for a "more equal dialogue between patient and clinician and improve the nature of the relationship."  Some patients tend to get overwhelmed in a formal medical setting and may not address all of their problems with  the physician. They may also think that "the doctor is too busy to bother with my petty complaints." With video chat, the patient remains on his or her home turf and hence the discussion may be conducted on a more equal footing. (Source: Lab Soft News) Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902700 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:47:23 +0100 4902700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883722&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D272 Just think: a 3D study that exposes patients to a fraction of the radiation dose as a CT or X-ray.  FDA approved in 2011, the sterEOS system is designed to provide unique weight bearing images of the hip, knee, and spine.  CT technology has been the gold standard for hard tissue imaging since it first appeared in the 70s.  It has become so effective that each year there are over 62 million CT scans prescribed in the U.S.  Although a proven tool, its radiation exposure to patients has made the routine use of the technology a concern. The sterEOS is a X-ray-based biplane system with a 3D workstation.  Along with the ability to provide 1:1 3D images of a patient’s skeletal system, its xenon gas detector delivers less than 10% of the radiation as existing film X-ray technology and up to... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883722 Tue, 31 May 2011 14:36:25 +0100 4883722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883742&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2FB5fVKg7dC8w%2Fbrain-networks-with-olaf-sporns-bsp-74.html Discussion of Brain Imaging, including Diffusion Imaging BSP 56: Interview with Dr. Eve Marder about the use of circuit theory in neuroscience BSP 61: Mapping the Brain (and generating huge amounts of data)  ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Brain Science Podcast will be returning to a monthly schedule on July 1, 2011. Please join the new Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum at GoodReads.com. Get show notes automatically via our Newsletter. Dr. Campbell gave a talk in London last month entitled "Why Neuroscience Matters."(Available here.) Dr. Campbell will be a speaker at The Amazing Meeting 9, July 14-17,2011 in Las Vegas, NV. Don't forget to check out the Books and Ideas podcast and SCIENCEPODCASTERS.ORG. The Brain Science Podcast app is available for iPhone, Android, and iPad. If you hav... the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883742 Tue, 31 May 2011 09:00:23 +0100 4883742 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872495&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F05%2Fincidentalomas-revisited-revisited.html I recently posted a note about so-called incidentalomas, lesions often "accidentally" discovered during CT scans that have been ordered on the basis of other diagnostic concerns. You may want to refer to it to refresh your memory about the topic (see: How to Avoid the Risks of a CT Incidentaloma). Dr. Mark Pool who blogs over at The Daily Sign Out has posted a a well-thought-out note that extends this discussion in some interesting ways (see: Incidentalomas revisited). Below is an excerpt from it: Dr. Bruce Friedman posted a thoughtful blog on Lab Soft News recently concerning "incidentalomas" ....This post happened to coincide with a new working committee at my hospital commissioned with developing a virtual clinic for following patients who have incidental lung nodule... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872495 Thu, 26 May 2011 23:24:39 +0100 4872495 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862690&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D270 Ultrasound technology has evolved to view just about every area of the body but it still has its limitations in efficiently penetrate varying tissues, which has limited ultrasound’s ability to treat and image critical areas of the body such as the brain, liver, and heart.  But, time-reversed ultrasound is an emerging technology designed to improve the accuracy of both imaging and therapeutic ultrasound technology.  Time-reversal captures and records a sound wave.  The wave is then compressed and stored in a database, and then sent back in the opposite order it was received.  So, it is sent back to its exact origin but at a much higher power.  This allows it to be very accurate through multiple tissue layers while producing a highly focused sound wave that requires less power to gene... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862690 Tue, 24 May 2011 14:42:33 +0100 4862690 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841687&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D265 You have to be pretty excited that 3D mammography was just approved, but the good news does not stop there.  A unique 3D ultrasound technology is also in the FDA approval process.  Screening mammography has been the gold standard for detecting breast cancer for 30 years.  Still, the technology has a false positive rate ranging from 5.5% to 7.4%.  Because of this, patients are referred to ultrasound then MRI to rule out cancer before a biopsy is performed. Warm Bath Ultrasound (WBU) is a new technology designed to produce 3D breast images in less than 10 minutes. It’s based on placing the breast in a warm water bath surrounded by multiple ultrasound transducers, allowing near instantaneous tomographic imaging of the tissue.  Although limited as a screening tool, ultrasound has proven... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841687 Tue, 17 May 2011 14:06:10 +0100 4841687 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4842001&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F05%2Foveruse-of-colonoscopy-in-medicare-cohort.html It probably will not come as a surprise to veteran observers of our healthcare delivery system that colonoscopies are overordered. This particular procedure is a major source of revenue for gastroenterologists and many healthcare consumers understand the advantages of preventive medicine. The key question, then, revolves around the question of how often to perform the procedure by age group. A recent article addresses this overutilization topic (see: 'Large' Overuse of Screening Colonoscopy in Medicare Cohort), Below is an excerpt from it: About half of a sample of 24,071 Medicare patients who had a negative screening colonoscopy were rescreened again in less than 7 years — well before the recommended interval of 10 years, according to a new study. And nearly half of the retested... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4842001 Tue, 17 May 2011 13:09:01 +0100 4842001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803293&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D258 T-rays (Terahertz) are not something out of a movie; they are an emerging imaging technology with tissue analysis capabilities.  The technology has been studied for decades but high costs had limited its medical applications.  Commercial applications, such as airport security, have funded rapid advancements in technology and have helped drop the cost significantly.  Now, several companies and research centers are developing imaging systems for clinical trials. Terahertz radiation uses electromagnetic energy that falls between light and microwave radiation.  The technology is non-ionizing, which makes it safer than X-rays, and offers spectral analysis imaging.  It can also penetrate tissue to 3 to 4 cm.  Medical applications include wound care, cancer, and arthritis diagnosis. I asked... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803293 Mon, 09 May 2011 17:04:39 +0100 4803293 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803549&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F05%2Fguest-blog-note-heterotopic-calcification.html While having lunch with Dr. Bruce Friedman, my friend, colleague, and technology mentor recently, we continued our conversation about heterotopic ossifications A Radiologist Comments on Heterotopic Ossification).  He asked me if there were other similar lesions that, based on imaging, should not be biopsied.  I responded that there are, in fact, a number of co-called “don’t touch” lesions that fall into this group.  He then invited me to write a guest blog describing what is meant by a “don’t touch” lesion. --Dr. Brian Sabb It is my understanding that the term "don't touch lesion" was first coined by Dr. Clyde Helms (see: "Don't Touch" Lesions).  He is a well-respected and prolific musculoskeletal radiologist who currently ser... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803549 Mon, 09 May 2011 12:32:50 +0100 4803549 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775612&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F05%2Fdangers-of-the-ct-incidentaloma.html Pathologists use the suffix -oma to designate a tumor. Hence, a so-called incidentaloma is a lesion discovered by a radiologist during a CT exam. Here's a common scenario that patients may encounter. The treating physician is trying to diagnose lesion A. The radiologist discovers lesion B while seeking to confirm lesion A. Lesion B is perhaps a small lung mass that may be clinically significant (e.g., an early cancer) but may also be benign and better off undiscovered. Once discovered, the physician treating the patient may react "defensively" and seek to pin down the diagnosis. This new diagnostic goal may be associated with its own set of morbidities and even mortalities. A recent article discussed the dangers of incidentalomas (see: Dangers of the Incidentaloma: Why to Thi... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775612 Mon, 02 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100 4775612 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753978&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F04%2Fexhibitors-sought-for-pathology-informatics-2011-october-4-7-in-pittsburgh.html We are seeking exhibitors for the Pathology Informatics 2011 conference that will take place at the Wyndham Hotel in Pittsburgh on October 4-7, 2011. This conference resulted from a merger of two previous pathology informatics conferences, Lab Infotech Summit and APIII. The inaugural merged conference was held in Boston last September. A total of 41 exhibitors participated in that event with about 250 paid registrants in attendance. A total of twenty-five companies have signed-up thus far to participate in Pathology Informatics 2011. They are the following: Aperio, Apollo PACS, ARUP Laboratories, Aurora Interactive, Beckman Coulter, Cerner, Dawning Technologies, Definiens, Elekta, General Data, Haemonetics Software Solutions, Halfpenny Technologies, McKesson Corporation, Milestone Medical,... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753978 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:07:51 +0100 4753978 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4747908&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F04%2Fradiology-job-market-trends-downward-blame-technology-and-reimbursement.html Here are summaries of three conversations that I have had recently: A newly graduated physician tells me that her colleagues widely understand that the radiology job market is lousy with the exception of interventional radiology (IR), for which there are plenty of openings. A mid-career, highly specialized  academic radiologist tells me that there would be few, suitable positions available for him if we were to change positions. A very senior radiologist in a large, midwest hospital tells me that he is working twice as hard to simply maintain his expected income; he cites digital pathology and PACS as the enabling technologies that allow him to ramp-up his personal efficiency and effectiveness. All of this caused me to search the web for some further discussion of the current radio... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4747908 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:12:55 +0100 4747908 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734245&cid=t_93454_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.drmalpani.com%2F2011%2F04%2Fwhy-id-trust-expert-patient-more-than.html This may be a terrible confession for a doctor to make, but when I have a medical problem, I'd trust an expert patient rather than a doctor. Let me explain.I have chronic back pain and this can be quite severe at times. However, I am very reluctant to go to an orthopedic surgeon, because I know pretty much what he is going to say. He's going to do a cursory examination and then ask me do do a MRI scan. The MRI scan will find some bulges in my intervertebral discs - and the radiologist will happily report this as prolapsed intervertebral disk ( slipped disc, in layman's terms). The doctor will be happy he's made the right diagnosis; and will advise bed rest; pain-killers ; and physiotherapy - with the caveat that if it gets worse, he'll be happy to do "minimally invasive surgery" to fix the... The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734245 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 03:02:00 +0100 4734245 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714866&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D236 The use of light as a medical diagnostic modality has been evolving since the pulse oximeter was first invented.  The recent FDA approval of the optical coherence tomography imaging system (OCTIS) has taken the use of light as a diagnostic tool another step.  OCTIS is designed to use multiple wavelengths of light to provide magnified cross-sectional images of a suspicious pathology.  This, combined with its 1-mm catheter, will enable it to be a viable tool for lung and GI tract cancers.  Historically, advanced imaging technologies, such as CT and MRI, are used to detect suspicious nodules as small as 1 mm; however, to confirm or rule out cancer, an invasive biopsy is performed. Still, 99% of biopsied lung lesions are negative for cancer. I spoke to Armin Ernst, MD, pulmonologist and ch... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714866 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:34:36 +0100 4714866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4693515&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F04%2Fcap-foundations-futurescape-coming-up-quickly.html The CAP Foundation's Futurescape of Pathology conference (IV) will be held on April 15-17 at the InterContinental Hotel near Chicago's O'Hare airport. I will be moderating the program on Saturday morning on digital pathology that will include a session entitled: The Development of National Electronic Pathology/Laboratory Networks. Faculty will include Kenneth J. Bloom, MD, of Clarient; Rob Atlas, President & CEO, Atlas Development Corporation; and Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh. In my opinion, the Futurescape conferences have been some of the best in the country regarding strategic positioning of pathology and the clinical labs. Ne sure to put this event on your calendar if you have concerns about the future of our speciality. (Source: Lab Sof... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4693515 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:04:12 +0100 4693515 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676916&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D227 A few months ago, I read in the Federal Registry that Cardiac PET studies will see a 23% cut in reimbursement for 2011.  This looks pretty dramatic but one thing to consider is that in 2010, Cardiac PET studies saw a 20% increase.  It is this kind of unpredictability the makes it hard for a CFO to project a budget.  Is it just a readjustment by CMS or is there another reason for the change?  I did some checking, and other than labor, there are two primary costs associated with Cardiac PET studies: capital costs and the Rubidium-82 radioisotopes.  According to the MD Buyline database, capital costs for PET and radioisotope generating technology have been fairly stable over the last few years. The consumable portion of the radioisotope generator costs between $29,000 and $32,000, depend... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676916 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:17:19 +0100 4676916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653431&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D222 Imaging efficiency measures are part of the Measures Management System now being developed by CMS.  Its goal is to ensure proper utilization of imaging technology and to guarantee that new proposed payment strategies are based on scientific evidence.  The primary focus of the program is on high-cost PET, SPECT, ultrasound, MRI, and CT technologies.    Costs have always made imaging a focus of CMS.  In the last 10 years, the volume of diagnostic imaging grew at a rate of approximately 10% per year.  To address this, CMS made a series of changes on how hospital outpatient imaging is reimbursed.  Starting in 2008, CMS included contrast agents and other supplies within the APC code.  Then, in 2009, composite APCs lowered the payment rate when two or more procedures were performed on t... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653431 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:38:59 +0100 4653431 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631550&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D220 What’s the next step when a biomarker test is positive for cancer but the tumor is too small to be detected with either ultrasound or X-rays?  Several years ago, I reported on the BT Blood test (Provista Diagnostics), a revolutionary test for breast cancer.  Since then, Power3 Medical entered the market with their BC-SeraPro test.  These new biomarker lab tests have the ability to diagnose cancer at just a few cells. How good are breast cancer blood tests?  Digital mammography has an accuracy rate for women under age 50 at 84%; film mammography, 69%.  The published results for the BT test reflect 97% accuracy.   For women over 50, digital mammography has an accuracy rate at 77%; film, 75%; BT, 86% accuracy.   So what do you do when a blood test comes up positive for breast cance... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631550 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:25:11 +0100 4631550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4636500&cid=t_93454_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.drmalpani.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fphoto-essay-on-how-early-normal.html The first few weeks of an IVF pregnancy are often packed with tension ! Is all well ? Is the pregnancy developing normally ? Every minor spot of blood leads to panic - ans there's a lot of suspense when you get your HCG results and go for your ultrasound scans !Seeing your baby's heart beat for the first time on the scan can be a very emotionally charged moment ! This photo essay by Dr Hemant Morparia shows you how a normal pregnancy evolves, as seen by ultrasound scanning, so you know what to expect !Please remember that the weeks refer to clinical age ( as calculated from the last menstrual period, LMP) and not the actual age of the embryo ! (Source: The Patient's Doctor) The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4636500 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:30:00 +0100 4636500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4611009&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F03%2Ffhp-unveils-new-business-strategy-cloud-and-business-analytics.html If I were an investor in HP, I would be discouraged to learn that the new CEO has only now discovered that software has a higher profit margin than software and also that there's money to be made in the cloud. Here's a report of his remarks about these topics (see: Hewlett-Packard Chief Unveils Strategy for Expansion) Léo Apotheker, chief of Hewlett-Packard, said Monday that the company would expand its software business and venture into cloud computing. He finally unveiled his strategy to investors on Monday, saying that H.P. would build out its tiny software business and expand into the cloud — a term used to describe products and services delivered online. Mr. Apotheker’s plan is not so much to reinvent H.P., but to help it evolve. Mr. Apotheker said he planned to use the c... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4611009 Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:58:39 +0100 4611009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592704&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F03%2Ffcreating-the-i-patient-bedside-diagnostic-skills-continue-to-deteriorate.html According to one prominent physician, Dr. Abraham Verghese, electronic records and our sophisticated diagnostic tools are causing physicians to increasingly focus on the electronic records and diagnostic images (i.e., the iPatient) and ignoring their flesh-and-blood patients (see: Treat the Patient, Not the CT Scan). Put another way, we are treating the iPatients rather than the physical patient. Below is an excerpt from the article: [The expanding reliance on electronic medical records] creates what I call an “iPatient” — and this iPatient threatens to become the real focus of our attention, while the real patient in the bed often feels neglected, a mere placeholder for the virtual record. Imaging the body has become so easy (and profitable, too, if you own the machine). When I was ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592704 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:19:45 +0100 4592704 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4575125&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D208 Everyone knows that radiation is harmful.  Now, with more imaging procedures being performed, the FDA has published an initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure.  The primary focus of the initiative is to promote awareness but it also provides guidelines and measures to reduce high levels of patient exposure. First, let’s define which technologies are most affected.  One study stated that CT, interventional fluoroscopy, and nuclear medicine studies make up approximately 26% of the imaging procedures using radiation but contributed 89% of the total yearly exposure to radiation from medical imaging.  To be more specific, the New England Journal of Medicine listed CT angiography of the chest and spine, myocardial perfusion (nuclear medicine), and cath lab imaging as delivering... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4575125 Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:07:39 +0100 4575125 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4566192&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D206 Just think of the advantages to being able to confirm a cancerous pathology in less than five minutes.  Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have developed nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging (NIVI), a light-based technology that offers the promise of quick and accurate cancer diagnosis. Using light to identify a pathology is not a new concept.  Several companies already have systems on the market that use either near-infrared (NIR), optical coherence tomography (OCT), or multimodal hyperspectral imaging (MHI) to diagnose vulnerable plaque or cancer.  What makes NIVI technology unique is the use of pulse light to vibrate the tumor cells.  This allows the technology to identify the compositio... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4566192 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:18:02 +0100 4566192 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560270&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fidentifying-skin-cancer-with-light%2F2011.03.08 Duke University scientists have been successfully testing a new laser system they developed to identify cancerous skin moles. Two lasers in the system are used to identify the presence of eumelanin in biopsy slices and a future version of the device may work directly without having to sample the mole. According to an article in Science Translational Medicine, “the ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin captured all investigated melanomas but excluded three-quarters of dysplastic nevi and all benign dermal nevi.” From the press release: The tool probes skin cells using two lasers to pump small amounts of energy, less than that of a laser pointer, into a suspicious mole. Scientists analyze the way the energy redistributes in the skin cells to pinpoint the microscopic locations of diff... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560270 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:00:42 +0100 4560270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4532213&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhow-experienced-is-the-radiologist-who-reads-your-mammogram%2F2011.02.28 There’s a new study out on mammography with important implications for breast cancer screening. The main result is that when radiologists review more mammograms per year, the rate of false positives declines. The stated purpose of the research*, published in the journal Radiology, was to see how radiologists’ interpretive volume — essentially the number of mammograms read per year — affects their performance in breast cancer screening. The investigators collected data from six registries participating in the NCI’s Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, involving 120 radiologists who interpreted 783,965 screening mammograms from 2002 to 2006. So it was a big study, at least in terms of the number of images and outcomes assessed. First — and before reaching any concl... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4532213 Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:00:57 +0100 4532213 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4512394&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdoctors-are-sponges%2F2011.02.23 I am a doctor. Go ahead, call me what you may. Group me into a neatly, prejudged category: “All you doctors.” Just don’t label me a sponge. That’s right. Recently in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Andy Kessler, famous author and former hedge fund manager smart enough to turn $100 million into $1 billion, grouped doctors into a sub-category of the service economy which he labeled as “sponges.” We could have done worse: His other categories included “sloppers” (DMV workers), “slimers” (financial planners), and “thieves” (cable companies). It seems that doctors — along with cosmetologists, lawyers, and real estate brokers — offend him because of the tests and licenses that we deem necessary: Sponges are those who earned t... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4512394 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:00:37 +0100 4512394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4495203&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmri-safe-pacemakers-available-in-u-s-hospitals-soon-what-it-means-for-heart-patients%2F2011.02.18 This was the Guest Blog at Scientific American on February 16th, 2011. New wave of MRI-safe pacemakers set to ship to hospitals This week Medtronic will begin shipping to hospitals in the United States the first pacemaker approved by the FDA as safe for most MRI scans. For consumers, it is a significant step in what is expected to be a wave of new MRI-compatible implanted cardiac devices. But this is an example of one technology chasing another and the one being chased, the MRI scanner, is changing and is a step ahead of the new line of pacemakers. The pacemaker approved for U.S. distribution is Medtronic’s first-generation pacemaker with certain limitations, while its second-generation MRI-compatible pacemaker is already in use in Europe where approval for medical devices is not as dem... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4495203 Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:00:00 +0100 4495203 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482875&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2F16%2Frapid-warping-of-two-photon-illumination-wavefronts%2F A short paper in Optics Express looks interesting.  In A high speed wavefront determination method based on spatial frequency modulations for focusing light through random scattering media, Meng Cui presents a method for rapidly determining the optimal wavefront to ‘cancel out’ the scattering when 785nm light passes through turbid media.  In his example, a glass diffuser was used, but the clear goal for this work is to replace the glass with a brain. To understand why this is so important for in vivo two-photon imaging, let’s review how 2-p imaging works. Light from a laser is focused to a point and swept across the field in a raster. The resulting fluorescence is of a different wavelength and can thus be filtered out from the excitation light. For each voxel, all the ... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482875 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:51:15 +0100 4482875 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455489&cid=t_93454_151_f&fid=35805&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwelvestepfacilitation.com%2Falcohol-drug-long-term-brain-damage%2F This study demonstrates an innovative technique that allows for a glimpse of these cellular changes within the brain regions implicated in drug reward, providing an important tool in our understanding and treatment of addiction," Volkow concluded.The study was published online Jan. 16 in the journal Nature Medicine.From Join TogetherRelated articlesScience of Addiction (twelvestepfacilitation.com)Alcoholic Liver Disease (twelvestepfacilitation.com)Huffing Inhalants by Kids (recoveryissexy.com)Treatment Resources for providersRandom ArticlesRecovery through the Twelve Steps50 Most Read Articles January ‘08Spirituality Valuable Asset on Road to SobrietyAdjunctive therapy with AAStricter Sobriety Standards for California Health Professionals (Source: Twelve Step Facilitation.com) Twelve Step Facilitation.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455489 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:19:36 +0100 4455489 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450389&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2F08%2Fquick-picks-brainbow-flies%2F Nature methods published two papers which extend brainbow-like techniques of stochastic multicolored neuronal labeling into fruit flies.  Nature’s summary explains the two methods.   dBrainbow expression examples     The first technique, called dBrainbow, was developed by Julie Simpson, a neuroscientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, and her colleagues2. This method uses enzymes called recombinases to randomly delete some of the colour-producing genes from the string, leaving different genes next to the promoter regions in different cells. Individual cells are therefore uniquely coloured and so can be easily distinguished… The second technique, called Flybow, was developed by Salecker and ... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450389 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:05:00 +0100 4450389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450526&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F02%2Fontario-ges-omnyx-establish-digital-pathology-center-of-excellence.html GE has announced an agreement to establish its first Global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence in Toronto, Ontario. GE and its digital pathology joint venture, Omnyx, will invest $7.75M along with a $2.25M grant from the Health Technology Commercialization Program created by HTX (Health Technology Exchange) and funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Planned collaborative research and development partnerships will bring an additional $7.2M, for a total investment of $17.2M over the next 3 years (see: GE and the Government of Ontario Establish First Global Digital Pathology Centre of Excellence to Improve Patient Care). Three facts were listed at end of the press release that provided some insight for me about why the Canadian government was interested in jump-startin... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450526 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:19:14 +0100 4450526 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4419138&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmeditation-how-it-may-change-the-brain%2F2011.01.31 Meditation sounds like a great idea from the perspective of a psychiatrist: Anything that calms and focuses the mind is a good thing (and without pharmaceuticals, even better). Personally, I tried transcendental meditation as a kid (more to do with my mother than with me) and found it to be boring. I have trouble keeping my thoughts still. They wander to what I want for dinner, and should I write about this on Shrink Rap, and will Clink and Victor ever eat crabcakes with me again, and did I remember to give my last patient informed consent, and a zillion other things. Holding my thoughts still is work. The New York Times Well blog has an article on meditation and brain changes. In “How Meditation May Change the Brain,” Sindya N. Bhanoo writes: The researchers report that those ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4419138 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:00:00 +0100 4419138 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4419251&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D162 Additional reimbursement is great news from CMS for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and for improved cancer outcomes.  Historically, CMS has only covered a FDG PET study either for the initial diagnosis or a follow-up staging for solid tumors and myeloma.  Because of the high cost of PET, its use has been limited for further follow up staging, an important tool in evaluating the effectiveness of the therapy.   When I spoke to Claudia Henschke, MD, professor of radiology at Weill Medical College, attending radiologist, chief of the division of Chest Imaging, and chief of the division of Health Care Policy and Technology Assessment at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, she commented on the advantages of PET and stated, “PET is another technology for detectin... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4419251 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:18:37 +0100 4419251 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4382826&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D153 Reimbursement for echocardiograms will decrease between 6% and 14% for 2011, which is pretty interesting considering just last year, we saw 7% to 9% increases for the same codes.  This represents an average swing of 17% in the last two years.  There are two primary APC codes that are affected by this change: APC 0269 (Level II echocardiogram, except transesophageal) has received a 14% drop to $389, which could be a readjustment since the 2009 to 2010 7% increase, and APC 0270 (transesophageal echocardiogram) dropped only 6% to $536, which had a 9% increase from 2009 to 2010. When compared to other diagnostic cardiology technology, echocardiograms are one of the cheapest and least invasive methods available for viewing the heart.  Over the years, these advantages have allowed for rapid g... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4382826 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:14:03 +0100 4382826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4382707&cid=t_93454_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2011%2F01%2Ffda-approve-alzheimer-disease-imaging-drug%2F The US FDA sees promise in the new Eli Lilly drug Amyvid to be used to image and screen for the presence of brain plaques that occur in Alzheimer’s Disease. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4382707 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:31:03 +0100 4382707 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4372047&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fshould-doctors-be-allowed-to-self-refer%2F2011.01.19 Federal law generally prohibits physicians from referring their own patients to a diagnostic facility in which they have an ownership issue — a practice called “self-referral” — unless the facility is located in their own practice. This exemption exists to allow patients with access to a laboratory test, X-ray, or other imaging test at the same time and place as when patients are seeing their physician for an office visit. Less inconvenience and speeder diagnosis and treatment — what could be wrong with that? Much, say the critics, if it leads to overutilization and higher costs and doesn’t really represent a convenience to patients. This is the gist of two studies by staff employed by the American College of Radiology, published in the December issue of Health Affa... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4372047 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0100 4372047 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4360982&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fkids-with-dyslexia-predicting-their-reading-skills-with-mri%2F2011.01.17 An international team of researchers has developed a rather reliable test that predicts the future improvement of reading abilities in kids with dyslexia. The method uses functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) to scan the brain, and data crunching software to interpret the data. The researchers hope that the finding will help parents and therapists uniquely identify which learning tools are best for each child. From the announcement by Vanderbilt University : The 45 children who took part in the study ranged in age from 11 to 14 years old. Each child first took a battery of tests to determine their reading abilities. Based on these tests, the researchers classified 25 children as having dyslexia, which means that they exhibited significant difficulty le... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4360982 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:00:02 +0100 4360982 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4361069&cid=t_93454_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2F17%2Fi-too-have-a-dream-about-mental-health%2F Some of you may recognize my dream, but I like to repost it every now and then to keep it alive and give it legs. In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.: I have a dream that one day I won’t hold my breath every time I tell a person that I suffer from bipolar disorder, that I won’t feel shameful in confessing my mental illness. I have a dream that people won’t feel the need to applaud me for my courage on writing and speaking publicly about my disease, because the diagnosis of depression and bipolar disorder would be understood no differently than that of diabetes, arthritis, or dementia. I have a dream that the research into genetics of mood disorders will continue to pinpoint specific genes that may predispose individuals and families to depression and bipolar disord... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4361069 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:15:06 +0100 4361069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4343347&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F01%2Ftu.html I had previously heard about Google Goggles but do not have the app on my smartphone -- I don't have an Android phone. However, I may consider one in the future. It turns out that the app can perform a new trick that astonishes me (see: Android Google Goggles Adds Barcode Scanning, Sudoku Cheats). Below are the details: Google's latest version of Google Goggles is apparently powerful enough to beat a Sudoku champ at her own game....Google announced Goggles 1.3 client for Android, featuring instant barcode scanning and print ad recognition. And as an added bonus, Goggles 1.3 can also help you cheat on Sudoku. First released on Android phones in December 2009 and on iOS in October 2010, Google Goggles is a visual recognition app that allows users to photograph objects and receive rel... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4343347 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:48:54 +0100 4343347 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4326901&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-musicians-brain-on-mri%2F2011.01.09 Dr. Charles Limb is an otolaryngologist, and he’s also on the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Wanting to study creativity on the neurological level, he used fMRI to scan the brains of musicians while improvising along with them. Here he describes the experiment, including the building of an MRI-compatible electronic keyboard: Link @ TED… *This blog post was originally published at Medgadget* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4326901 Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:00:26 +0100 4326901 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4322594&cid=t_93454_129_f&fid=36038&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everydayhealth.com%2Fblog%2Ftrevis-life-with-multiple-sclerosis-ms%2Fmultiple-sclerosis-and-the-tsa-an-open-letter-to-the-secretary-of-homeland-security%2F Madam Secretary Napolitano, I’m quite upset… and you should know about it (before someone far more litigious than myself tells you)! I guess I should preface the forthcoming tirade with the fact that, as I am a proud former member of the US Coast Guard, I know very well the difficulties faced by the line employees of the Transportation Security Administration section of your Homeland Security department. I do not blame them. I live with multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Current research points to the body’s immune system as a possible culprit of the disease. As a result, heavy doses of corticosteroids are often employed to battle MS. One possible side effect of such steroid use is the death of bone, which can force joint replacement. I hav... Life with MS blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4322594 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:53:37 +0100 4322594 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394522&cid=t_93454_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fscience-news-with-a-spectral-twist-3.html , first 2011 issue of my spectroscopyNOW.com now live Fast-track walking pneumonia test – A new approach to testing for a common form of pneumonia using nanorod arrays to boost SERS signals can cut the time to diagnosis from several days to a mere ten minutes, according to research published in the journal Plos One. Conservation conversation – Improving storage and exposure conditions in conservation of artefacts is crucial to suppressing the fading and degradation of dyes and other components of paintings. Researchers have now used several analytical techniques, including attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and optical microscopy, to investigate different conditions on common ... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394522 Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:00:58 +0100 4394522 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4314098&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D138 Just recently, I was writing about the advantages of 3T MRI and found that 7T systems have already started to appear in the U.S.  I did a quick check of the MD Buyline database and found that although the market for MRI technology has slowed, 3T systems accounted for 30% of the buying requests, which is up from less than 25% a year ago, and it wasn’t that long ago when 3T systems were considered a research tool.  Of course, 7T systems cost considerably more than a 3T.  The question to ask is: what additional information will they offer?  One study showed that the higher field strengths of 7T offer improved sensitivity and contrast when compared to 3T.  With improved sensitivity, physicians are twice as likely to distinguish between multiple sclerosis (MS) brain lesions and normal wh... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4314098 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:03:55 +0100 4314098 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4300549&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fneed-an-ultrasound-there%25e2%2580%2599s-an-app-for-that%2F2010.12.30 Imagine walking into the room of a patient with ascites and pulling out your iPad (which you were just using to put in orders on another patient), pulling an ultrasound probe out of your pocket, connecting the two, and finding a fluid pocket from which to drain the abdominal fluid. We’ve already shown how iPad’s can be useful in the OR. Now they, along with other tablets and smartphones, can be applied to bedside diagnostics and therapeutics to enhance patient safety while reducing costs. It’s a pretty exciting prospect being put forth by an mHealth startup called Mobisante. And having won awards at an MIT Enterprise Forum as well as the Mobile Health Expo, others certainly seem to buying in as well. Mobisante, an mHealth company based in Redmond, WA, has recently been showing a new ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4300549 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:00:02 +0100 4300549 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294806&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D127 Ultrasound contrast first appeared in the 1990s and now, evolving microbubble contrast agents, which are relatively low-cost and safe, are expanding the role of ultrasounds in diagnostic medicine. Microbubbles consist of shells ranging from 1-4 micrometers in diameter that are injected with a gas and have the ability to reflect ultrasound waves.  Because microbubbles reflect ultrasound waves differently than tissue, a unique sonogram is produced with these contrast agents.  Currently, their primary focus is in echocardiography for the diagnosis of cardiac conditions but they are evolving to other applications, such as tumor identification and liver diseases.  Additionally, microbubbles can be used to deliver drug therapy to a specific site. I spoke to Roy Filly, MD, professor emeritus, ... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294806 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:35:55 +0100 4294806 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4287491&cid=t_93454_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoctorandpatient.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F12%2Fpatients-appear-to-be-problem-in-modern.html " Patients appear to be the problem in modern high-tech health care: they areuninformed, anxious, noncompliant folk with unhealthy lifestyles. They de-mand drugs advertised by celebrities on television, insist on unnecessary butexpensive computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)scans, and may eventually turn into plaintiffs. Patients’ lack of health literacyand the resulting costs and harms have received much attention."Please read this very thought-provoking article called The Century of the Patient, which talks about how we can help patients to become better informed ! (Source: The Patient's Doctor) The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4287491 Fri, 24 Dec 2010 10:23:00 +0100 4287491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294753&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2F-Xob9ZUrOJc%2Fdell-to-buy-imaging-firm-insite-one.html I've just learned that Dell is making a deeper push into health IT by announcing an acquisition of cloud-based PACS and medical imaging systems vendor InSite One. (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294753 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:02:06 +0100 4294753 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4266287&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F12%2Fwmajor-shifts-in-use-medical-imaging-in-emergency-departments.html It will come as a no surprise to readers of this blog that the practice of medicine is changing radically, particularly the use of CT scans and other diagnostic studies. Part of the shift is due to the fact that younger physicians are losing their ability to diagnose at the bedside. Part is due to the increasing sophistication of imaging technology itself. Certainly part is due to the pressure to practice defensive medicine. A recent article puts some real numbers to this shift in the use of CT scans in hospital emergency departments (see: Use of CT Scans in Emergency Departments 'Skyrocketing'). Below is an excerpt from the article: The use of computed tomography (CT) scans in emergency departments (EDs) throughout the United States has increased dramatically in recent years, and ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4266287 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:10:55 +0100 4266287 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4249060&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Flive-birth-mri-style%2F2010.12.10 At the Charité Hospital in Berlin, researchers have built a specialty MRI machine with enough space to fit a woman undergoing labor. The Local, a German newspaper in the English language, is reporting that the first images of a baby moving through the birth canal have been captured, and that the mother and child are doing just fine. The clinicians involved in the project hope to be able to study why some women end up requiring a Caesarian section, while others do not. More at The Local: MRI scans live birth… *This blog post was originally published at Medgadget* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4249060 Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:00:00 +0100 4249060 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4233264&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D111 Noninvasive, quick, accurate, and at a lower cost.  If that doesn’t make the top of the list, then what does?  Not that long ago, I was asked by the CEO of a forward-thinking hospital to share my views on emerging medical technology because the hospital’s board of directors was looking for a second opinion on their wish list of high-dollar new technology.  Interestingly enough, my presentation coincided perfectly with a recently-recruited cardiologist’s presentation that preceded mine.  For years, the “gold standard” for diagnosing chest pain has been a cath lab procedure.  However, along with being invasive and costly, it is a time-consuming procedure.  Coronary CT angiography has been an evolving technology for years.  Early 8- and 16-slice systems offered limited abilit... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4233264 Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:52:15 +0100 4233264 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214277&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D105 According to a recent article, more than half ($15 billion) of the $21 billion U.S. Medical Imaging Market is spent on contrast agents. In fact, most hospitals spend as much on contrast agents as they do on new imaging equipment.  But with discounting ranging from 20 to 65%, this is an area that should not stay hidden.  On average, imaging dyes range from $20 to $150 per procedure and can make up 10 to 60% of a study’s costs.  When I spoke to Dr. Alexander R. Margulis, MD, clinical professor of radiology, Weil Medical College at Cornell University New York, he put it into perspective, stating, “Considering the overall expenses of a study, including hospital and doctors’ fees, the contrast is not much more.  If you address cost from just the technology side, it can start to add up... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214277 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:16:29 +0100 4214277 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4197374&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F11%2Fwimaging-superior-to-biopsy-in-cases-of-suspected-hepatocellular-carcinoma.html I believe that radiologists will soon be rendering many more definitive diagnoses than "impressions" in their reports due to improvements in imaging technology. This will place them increasingly in competition with pathologists. A recent report about the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma reinforced this idea in my mind and also presented other interesting facts (see: Imaging Instead of Biopsy for Most Suspected Hepatocellular Carcinomas). Below is an excerpt from the it: Although cross-sectional imaging is recommended by several well-respected societies as the standard of care for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), many physicians still rely on a liver biopsy for diagnosis....[A radiologist and expert on this topic recently] discussed the importance of cross-sec... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4197374 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:27:12 +0100 4197374 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190284&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D100 According to Dr. Richard Solomon, MD, professor of medicine at University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, and a expert in contrast-induced acute renal failure, “CIN is the third most common cause of hospital-acquired renal failure, and among all procedures that utilize contrast media for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, it affects coronary angiography the most.”  He continued, “Patients with CIN also have a longer stay in the hospital and have are at higher risk for hospital morbidity and mortality.” Keeping a critical diagnostic test from becoming deadly is a challenge, but RenalGuard Therapy, a unique automated process for the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN), may be able to help.  While researching a recent white paper, I found that 13% of patients expos... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190284 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:02:32 +0100 4190284 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4183562&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F11%2Fnew-malamoma-detection-device-narrowly-apporoved-by-the-fda.html MelaFind, a device designed for use by dermatologists for in-vivo detection of suspicious pigmented skin lesions, has been narrowly approved by an FDA advisory panel. Here is an excerpt from the article (see: Panel Splits over Skin Cancer Detection Device): An FDA advisory panel has voted 8-7, with one member abstaining, to recommend approval for an experimental skin cancer detection system called MelaFind. A vote so close generally is not considered an endorsement in the eyes of FDA officials, who have the final say in whether to approve the device. The FDA does not have to follow the advice of its advisory committees, but it often does. Some panelists on the [committee] were concerned that relying on a device to detect melanoma could lead to unnecessary biopsies, or worse: missed skin ca... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4183562 Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:06:09 +0100 4183562 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175677&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAxFD0p6aivE%2F By David RittgersI’ve got a piece in today’s New York Post that points out some inconvenient truths about the body scanners now installed at airports across the country. Building on Jim Harper’s excellent post, body scanners are not being installed because of a well-reasoned risk analysis. As Timothy Carney pointed out in the Washington Examiner, this is a sop to the companies that make the body scanners. The machines don’t work as well as advertised – a March GAO Report determined that it is not certain the technology would have found Farouk Abdulmutallab’s suspicious package, and that a cost-benefit analysis needed to be conducted before spending $340 million each year to run the labor-intensive equipment. The same report found that cargo screening was a weak spot that ought ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175677 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:50:16 +0100 4175677 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4164524&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ftalk-to-patients-before-running-tests%2F2010.11.14 The Associated Press ran a provocatively-titled piece recently, “Family health history: ‘best kept secret’ in care”, which noted how a geneticist at the Cleveland Clinic discovered that asking about family members and their history of breast, colon, or prostate cancer was better than simply doing genetic blood testing. Surprising? Hardly. This is what all medical students are taught. Talk to the patient. Get a detailed history and physical. Lab work and imaging studies are merely tools that can help support or refute a diagnosis. They provide a piece of the puzzle, but always must be considered in the full context of a patient. They alone do not provide the truth. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the H... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4164524 Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:00:00 +0100 4164524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151976&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D86 How do you visualize a tumor the size of a pinhead or a critical structure without radiation or patient contact?  Easy, in theory; you make it glow.  Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence first appeared in the laboratory, but it has now become an effective, real-time intraoperative instrument.  Dr. John Frangioni, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, is a leading scientist whose lab is focused on developing NIR technology.  He explained the technology’s applications and stated, “Near-infrared technology is a platform that can be used with any type of surgery and is limited only by the contrast agents used.  In the morning, it could be used for cardiac surgery; in the afternoon, cancer surgery.”  NIR fluorescence consists of ... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151976 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:27:50 +0100 4151976 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4152288&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F11%2Ftusame-day-histopathology-services.html I have been promoting the idea of integrated diagnostics in this blog (see: Revisiting Integrated Diagnostics and the Integrated Diagnostic Report) and suggested that the goal of no more than a three-day turnaround time for breast cases would be a suitable goal. In a recent note, I presented evidence that the current diagnostic-delay-time (DDT) for breast lesions from the time of initial screening until a definitive diagnosis is about 16 to 60 days (see: Diagnostic Delay Time (DDT) and Integrated Diagnostics). The Dark Daily recently ran a story about the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the technology they were deploying in surgical pathology. The lab is generating reports for a significant number of patients on a same-day basis. (see: Lean and New Diagnostic Technologies Fuel Innovations... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4152288 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:00:00 +0100 4152288 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151977&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D83 Think about it – an MRI system and three gamma ray sources functioning together as a large robot, a solution that researchers have developed to hit a moving tumor that you can’t see.  Sounds like a similar problem scientists faced with the Strategic Defense Initiative three decades ago, but it’s real today.     As Dr. Kenneth R. Olivier, MD, assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology and a leading researcher at University of Florida, explained, it is more than just hitting the target.  He stated, “Along with being able to accurately treat the tumor every day, there is a potential of shortening the treatment times.”  Technology that delivers increased throughput and improved outcomes?  I had to find out more. I then spoke with Dr. Chester Ramsey, PhD, medi... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151977 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:29:06 +0100 4151977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294761&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FUMwl5NQb5mA%2Fethics-rule-ends-carestream-rsna-bash.html For years, Carestream Health and its predecessor, the healthcare division of Eastman Kodak, has held a rather pricey bash at the Field Museum in Chicago during the annual Radiological Society of North America conference. That tradition has come to an end.An e-mail from a Carestream publicist explains: "Given the revised Code of Ethics issued by the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA)—which our company adheres to—we will not be hosting this social event as the MITA guidelines prohibit such engagements with healthcare professionals...which made up the bulk of our guest list." And hey, it's always good to save some money during an economic slump. (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294761 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:03:26 +0100 4294761 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4125054&cid=t_93454_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSciencebaseScienceBlog%2F%7E3%2FWZ13FW5oHTU%2Folive-oil-breast-cancer-gigapixel-scans.html Olive oil biophenols – Raman reveals all – The first report of Raman spectroscopy being used to look at chemical structures in olive oil has been published. The study establishes Raman as a rapid, non-destructive and reliable analytical technique for identifying bioactive components, such as biophenols in dietary extracts and surpasses other analytical methods. One nanoparticle for targeting, tracking and treating breast cancer – Nanoparticles coupled to a fluorescent dye can be used to target tumour-specific molecules in breast cancer providing a way to track the particles by NIR spectroscopy, to enhance magnetic resonance imaging and to deliver an anticancer payload only to diseased cells. Zoom and enhance for medical imaging – Computer scientists at the Universit... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4125054 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:30:00 +0100 4125054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4119740&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F10%2Fquality-collaboration-arranagments-in-surgical-pathololgy-between-small-and-large-hospitals.html We need to take some steps to ensure that our smaller hospitals continue to be viable both financially and in terms of the quality of care that they provide. This may be difficult for some of them in this new era of accountable care organizations (ACOs) with complex performance standards required by the government and insurance companies. One of the challenges facing smaller hospitals, from the perspective of surgical pathology, is that the number of pathologists working in such a setting will be small -- perhaps one or two in many cases. It is impossible in such a small group to solicit multiple opinions about a challenging surgical pathology case. In a large academic pathology department, there are numerous colleagues close-at-hand to consult, all of whom will have sub-speciality experti... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4119740 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:43:59 +0100 4119740 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4106080&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F10%2Fquality-collaboration-arranagments-in-surgical-pathololgy-between-small-and-large-hospitals.html We need to take some steps to ensure that our smaller hospitals continue to be viable both financially and in terms of the quality of care that they provide. This may be difficult for some of them in this new era of accountable care organizations (ACOs) with complex performance standards required by the government and insurance companies. One of the challenges facing smaller hospitals, from the perspective of surgical pathology, is that the number of pathologists working in such a setting will be small -- perhaps one or two in many cases. It is impossible in such a small group to solicit multiple opinions about a challenging surgical pathology case. In a large academic pathology department, there are numerous colleagues close-at-hand to consult, all of whom will have sub-speciality experti... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4106080 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:43:59 +0100 4106080 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4197199&cid=t_93454_115_f&fid=38592&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radiolopolis.com%2Findex.php%2Fmy-profile%2Fmy-blog%2Ffree-radiology-books.html  Diagnostic Imaging Series from AMIRSYS ==> A treasure of Radiology Books --- !!!!!!!! Hotfile Links and Uploading links to unrar ( extract the books ) use the following password : www.munatih-alsahab.blogspot.com to read the books use the following password: munatih (Source: Radiolopolis Blogs) Radiolopolis Blogs blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4197199 Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:54:27 +0100 4197199 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4082089&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-look-at-breast-cancer-via-nasa%2F2010.10.19 James C. Tilton, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, for some years now has been working on new image enhancement software to help automatically analyze satellite data of the Earth. Hierarchical Segmentation Software (HSEG), as the tool is called, identifies relatively homogeneous areas of an image and highlights them. Our eyes and brains are pretty good at image analysis, but large dense maps can be quite a challenge. Although originally designed for aerial cartography, the first commercial use of the software came in the form of a mammogram enhancement and analysis system. The lakes of northern Wisconsin (top) are very much like dense breast tissue (side) to a NASA scientist it turns out, and porting over the code and optimizing it led to the MED-SEG™ system from B... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4082089 Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:00:22 +0100 4082089 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4077614&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F10%2Fmwho-will-build-the-diagnostic-emr.html I have just come back from Washington G-2 Report's Lab Leaders' Summit and Lab Institute in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. This was the 28th annual presentation of the latter. Both were well received and highly successful. I personally spoke at the Lab Leaders' Summit, summarizing in my lecture what I perceived to be the current top ten IT trends in healthcare. One of the items in my top-ten list was the Diagnostic EMR (D-EMR), which I believe will now evolve on a parallel track to the clinical EMR (C-EMR). These are not terms now in common usage but I hope to make them so in the upcoming months. One of the questions that I posed during my lecture was which of the current LIS vendor(s) will decide to build a D-EMR. I envision that such a system will be cloud-... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4077614 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:39:35 +0100 4077614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074008&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=35060&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthnewsblog.com%2Fblog%2F1015101 Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing editor of health news at Foxnews.com, went to the Weill Cornell Medical College for a tour of the human body in 3D. The technology is called CAVE, which stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. It gives you an amazing view of the human body that has been constructed using MRI images. Take a look: Permalink | Recent Headlines | News Feeds (Source: HealthNewsBlog.com) HealthNewsBlog.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074008 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:00:00 +0100 4074008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4061083&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F10%2Ffdiagnostic-delay-time-ddt-and-integrated-diagnostics.html One component of Diagnostic Adverse Events (see: New Attention Being Directed toward Diagnostic Adverse Events (DAEs)) is the Diagnostic Delay Time (DDT). I discussed the topic of diagnostic delays in a recent note, comparing them to Clinical Adverse Events (CAEs) (see: Breast cancer diagnostic delay depends more on race than insurance). Below is an excerpt from the DDT article as it relates to breast cancer: Race and ethnicity appeared to affect diagnostic delay more than insurance status for women with breast abnormalities, as revealed by data presented at [a recent conference].... Findings revealed that non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women with government or private insurance waited more than twice as long for a definitive diagnosis than non-Hispanic white women with government o... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4061083 Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:50:43 +0100 4061083 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4055827&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F9mHY5I3qG84%2F Brain training does not necessarily mean computerized games. For instance, mediation may be a great tool to train your brain. Different parts of the brain support different functions. One function, central to many of our actions, is “attention”. Attention can be defined as the ability to sustain concentration on a particular object, action, or thought. It can also be defined as the ability to manage competing demands in our environment.connections between neurons, die. In the brain it is supported mainly by neuronal networks in the parietal (yellow in the figure) and frontal (blue in the figure) lobes. What can be done to maintain and boost such a fundamental ability? Dr. Andrew Newberg (Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvani... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4055827 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:05:03 +0100 4055827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4036790&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FzRjTTh4vKtw%2F (Editor’s Note: what follows is an excerpt from Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan’s new book, The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist’s Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases) CHAPTER TEN Brain Fog Summer 1990 Gigi and I had moved to Studio City, about a forty-minute commute to UCLA. On weekends, we often went to the movies at Universal CityWalk, a replication of Los Angeles within Los Angeles. Why people couldn’t just walk down the real streets of Los Angeles made no sense to me, yet there we were, on a Friday evening, eating ice cream and strolling down a simulated street. We had just seen Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new sciencefiction film about a construction worker who undergoes a false memory transplant that takes him on an imaginary trip to Mars. But... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4036790 Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:05:41 +0100 4036790 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4031512&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F10%2Fnew-appproach-to-clinical-trials-described.html Concern has been building for a number of years about the way that clinical trials for cancer drugs were being conducted. An alternative method is now being tested. It provides far more benefits for the enrolled patients and could be a model for future trials if it is successful. Details were provided in a recent article (see: A New Rx for Medicine; subscription required). Below is an excerpt from it: [A novel clinical trial for breast cancer], called I-Spy 2, employs several innovative approaches to improve the notoriously slow and inefficient process of developing new cancer drugs. Using the latest advances in genetics, I-Spy 2 aims to match experimental drugs with the molecular makeup of tumors most likely to respond to them. And it tests multiple drugs at once, with the intent of getti... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4031512 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:55:48 +0100 4031512 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4031370&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2Fl6wxN32Q4nc%2F The results of recently published studies suggest that fitter children also have fitter brains. It looks like exer­cis­ing your body pro­motes brain health. Is this true at all ages? How does it work? How much exercise should we do? Physical activity and brain health in children An emerging literature suggests that physical activity and high levels of aerobic fitness during childhood  may enhance cognition. In the 2 most recent studies by Kramer and colleagues (2010), the cognitive performance and the brains of higher-fit and lower-fit 9– and 10-year-old children were examined. In one study, fitter children did better than less fit children in a task requiring to ignore irrelevant information and attend to relevant cues. Fitter children also had larger basal ganglia (more specificall... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4031370 Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:24:04 +0100 4031370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013314&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=39278&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogsite.mdbuyline.com%2F%3Fp%3D45 Each year, over 1 million patients receive some form of pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).  Unfortunately, current pacemakers are not compatible with intense magnetic fields generated by MRI technology because the magnetic field can cause the pacemaker to rotate within the body, malfunction/fail, or cause electrical/thermal burns due to the antenna effect of the lead, thus, putting the patient at risk.  Due to these risks, over 300,000 patients in the U.S. with pacemakers are ineligible for MRI exams each year.  So why not use a different imaging method for those with a pacemaker or ICD?  According to Dr. Carlos E. Vargas, M.D., assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at University of Florida, “The advantage of MRI is that it is much better to work with than... MD Buyline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013314 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:20:52 +0100 4013314 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3981014&cid=t_93454_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FwaAb5QlVs3Q%2F A Florida hospital has filed a lawsuit against Astellas Pharma over Adenoscan, a med given to people who unable to run on a treadmill during cardiac stress tests, because the drugmaker argues hospitals would violate a method-of-use patent if they fail to sign licensing agreements and purchase its brand-name injectable instead of lower-cost generics. According to the lawsuit, Astellas associate general counsel Catherine Leavitt sent threatening letters to Lakeland Regional Medical Center saying that “Astellas is the only party that can authorize the patented use of adenosine infusion for MPI studies. Such permission is only granted when Adenoscan is purchased from Astellas.” MPI, or myocardial perfusion imaging, is a test used to determine cardiac artery disease. And so, Lakela... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3981014 Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:57:30 +0100 3981014 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3976591&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FHd6O6y9ycUw%2F Inter­est­ing arti­cle on The Dana Foundation website on how to monitor cognitive decline in the brain in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s: Functional MRI May Be Useful for Monitoring Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (Dana Foundation) Alzheimer’s researchers have long wanted to find better ways not only to diagnose the disease but also to monitor its progression from the earliest stages. A new study suggests that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique currently used mainly for neuroscience research or to guide brain surgery, could be useful in this clinical role. […] an elegant and thought-provoking study. (Source: SharpBrains) SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3976591 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:24:36 +0100 3976591 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3976720&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fmore-evidence-that-roche-moving-awar-from-traditional-pharm-business-model.html I have previously blogged about Roche's interest and focus on companion diagnostics (see: More Details About Roche's Companion Diagnostics Strategy; A Closer Look at Companion Diagnostics Strategies; Consideration of a Broader Definition for "Companion Diagnostics"). This is a strategy whereby a company such as Roche co-develops, or recommends, a gatekeeper biomarker test or IVDMIA that qualifies a patient for treatment with a particular biotech drug manufactured by that company. Also keep in mind the company's recent purchase of BioImagene, one of the leaders in digital pathology. This allows the blending of digital pathology with the product line of Ventana. Now comes news that Roche is abandoning its relationship with the pharma trade association PhRMA and casting ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3976720 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:34:16 +0100 3976720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3973009&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F15%2Fupdate-diadem-final-results%2F The DIADEM automated neuronal reconstruction contest has finished.  Accurate, fast, and high-resolution automated neuron reconstruction is of vital importance to cracking the mystery of how neural circuits perform. Even with perfect knowledge of the firing patterns of every cell in a circuit, our understanding of how these patterns are produced and how the information is processed would be quite limited.  True understanding requires knowledge of the precise wiring diagram.  This prize is a good first step towards bringing awareness of this tricky problem to the world’s best computer scientists. $75,000 in prize money was to go to the group that was able to produce high-quality reconstructions of neuronal structures at least 20x faster than by-hand reconstructions.  In the finals... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3973009 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:23:46 +0100 3973009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3973122&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fwhy-does-a-pathologist-request-a-consultation-on-a-case-when-should-this-be-documented.html In two previous posts, the issue has been discussed, firstly, how to document whether the consulting pathologists on a surgical pathology case should be documented in the report and, secondly, how to format this documentation (see: Displaying Pathology Consultants' Names and Opinions in Surgical Pathology Reports; Appending a List of Consultants to Surgical Pathology Reports). Michael Mihalik of Pathview Systems has responded to the second of these notes with a comment:At the risk of displaying my ignorance to the world, why WOULD a pathologist want to note the consulting pathologist on a report? We obviously support this functionality, but I have always had this question.I guess I have two general thoughts on the matter. The first is that is this not equivalent to the documentat... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3973122 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:38:46 +0100 3973122 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965710&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fmrevisiting-integrated-diagnostics-and-the-integrated-diagnostic-report.html In previous notes, I have been a strong advocate for integrated diagnostics, defined as closer collaboration, and perhaps eventual merger, of pathology, lab medicine, and radiology (see: The Evolution of Integrated Diagnostics into Integrated Diagnostic Centers)). A key central concept of this idea is the integrated diagnostic report (see: New Attention Being Directed toward Diagnostic Adverse Events (DAEs)). As currently conceptualized, such a report consists of a "super" or "bottom-line" diagnosis for a patient. It would be created by the integration of all of the "sub-diagnoses" for a patient that are generated serially and independently within the radiology sub-specialties (e.g., CT, MRI, PET) plus surgical pathology diagnoses plus data/diagnoses from the... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965710 Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:24:16 +0100 3965710 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3958069&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fmore-on-developing-a-consultants-list-on-surgical-pathology-reports.html In a recent guest blog, Dr. Alexis Carter discussed the importance of formally documenting the names of pathology consultants on surgical pathology reports (see: Displaying Pathology Consultants' Names and Opinions in Surgical Pathology Reports). Two comments were received with reference to it. The first was from Infopathic:Nice commentary on a rather simple concern, for which I believe has no simple solution. I would very much like to hear other voices weigh in with approaches to formally index consultations within AP-LIS solutions.The second from, Michael Mihalik of Pathview Systems, stated the following:We just recently had a very similar topic arise during the installation of our latest client. Our solution was an enhancement to our system which allows for both directed, formally e... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3958069 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:35:42 +0100 3958069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3946695&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fdicom.html This is a short guest blog by Dr. Bruce Beckwith, Chief of Pathology, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, MA. Dr. Beckwith will be providing more details about DICOM in a talk at Pathology Informatics 2010 that will be held in Boston on 19-22 September (see: Enabling Digital Pathology - Whole Slide Imaging in DICOM). Please contact him if you want more information or would like to get involved with the DICOM pathology working group. Such input is always valued. The approval of Supplement 145 (Whole slide microscopic image object definition) coupled with the prior approval of Supplement 122 in 2008 (Pathology specimen module) means that the DICOM standard now has the pathology concepts and image objects that are necessary for vendors to implement a digital pathology workflow, including AP-L... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3946695 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:08:11 +0100 3946695 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3942881&cid=t_93454_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FkWg4LfO-GBo%2Foig-imaging-preauthorization-may-be-handled-by-hospital-for-referring-docs-and-patients.html The OIG released an advisory opinion at the end of last month OK'ing a hospital's proposal to provide insurance pre-authorization srevices free of charge to patients and physicians.  This is an issue that has long vexed folks in the imaging world.  Clearly, this is a free service provided to referral sources (to the extent they are obligated by contract with third party payors to obtain the pre-authorization before referring a patient for an MRI, for example), so why is the OIG OK with it?  In the opinion, the OIG blesses the arrangement for four reasons: The arrangement doesn't target specific referring docs, so the pre-authorization service will be provided for patients of docs who are contractually bound to handle it themselves, as well as for patients of those who aren't, and t... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3942881 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:17:13 +0100 3942881 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3929234&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ffda-actively-monitoring-medical-and-healthcare-apps%2F2010.09.02 Bradley Merrill Thompson, an attorney with expertise in the FDA approval process for medical devices, is stating that the FDA is actively monitoring app stores on various platforms. Regulating medical devices and health care-related applications falls under the FDA’s jurisdiction. James Kendrick from JkOnTheRun spoke with Thompson, where he stated the following: The FDA is actively engaged in surveillance of various app stores to see if apps should trigger their involvement. Applications where a smartphone is connected in any way to imaging are under scrutiny, in particular. Any app that is used to transmit images to a medical facility requires FDA approval. By “various app stores,” Thompson is likely referring to the App store [Apple], Palm App Catalog [Web OS], App World [BlackBe... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3929234 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:10 +0100 3929234 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3925032&cid=t_93454_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F09%2F01%2Fhealth-2-0-news-doctors-using-google-hospital-blogs-being-blocked%2F 86% of MDs use Google on the the Job (Digital Pathology Blog) It’s not just patients who turn to Google or other search engines to research medical information. According to Google, 86 percent of doctors say they now use  Internet on the job. Of that group, the majority start at Google, which they use as a source to look for general information about diseases and drugs, writes pediatrician Dr. Rahul K. Parikh in a special piece for the Los Angeles Times. MAD MMX – Opening Title Sequence Doctors blends cardiology and country music (Clinicl Cases and Images) Is Your Hospital Blog Blocked by Websense? (Found in Cache) Fighting “Powerpoint-Death” by Science, Prezi or…?! (Laikas MedLibLog) 10 Important Things Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You ... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3925032 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:47:30 +0100 3925032 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924960&cid=t_93454_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2010%2F09%2F01%2Fwere-does-resilience-against-depression-reside-in-the-brain%2F Resilience is in psychiatry the positive capacity of people to cope with stress and catastrophe. In this post it’s used as having an adaptive system that uses exposure to stress to provide resistance to future negative events. Stress can lead to depression accompanied by atrophy and loss of neurons in the adult hippocampus in experimental studies. The effect of stress or whether you can become depressed due to stress seem to depend on individual characteristics. One characteristic is gene expression. Is it in your genes? Caspi et al showed that the 5-HTT genotype (serotonin transporter gene) moderates the depressogenic influence of stressful life events. It moderated the effect of life events that occurred not just in adulthood but also of stressful experiences that occurred in earl... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924960 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:32:37 +0100 3924960 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3920916&cid=t_93454_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2010%2F09%2F01%2Fwere-does-resilience-against-depression-reside-in-the-brain%2F Resilience is in psychiatry the positive capacity of people to cope with stress and catastrophe. In this post it’s used as having an adaptive system that uses exposure to stress to provide resistance to future negative events. Stress can lead to depression accompanied by atrophy and loss of neurons in the adult hippocampus in experimental studies. The effect of stress or whether you can become depressed due to stress seem to depend on individual characteristics. One characteristic is gene expression. Is it in your genes? Caspi et al showed that the 5-HTT genotype (serotonin transporter gene) moderates the depressogenic influence of stressful life events. It moderated the effect of life events that occurred not just in adulthood but also of stressful experiences that occurred in earl... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3920916 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:32:37 +0100 3920916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3896104&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Froches-ventana-acquires-bioimagene.html Roche Holding... said it will buy closely held BioImagene for $100 million, helping the Swiss drug company to extend its diagnostics business (see: Roche to Buy BioImagene, U.S. Diagnostics Firm). As part of the deal, Roche's unit Ventana Medical System Inc. will acquire 100% of the California-based company, which specializes in tissue-based cancer diagnostics and research. The U.S. company makes digital images from glass microscope slides that can be processed with computers, thus helping researchers and doctors save costs and time....The takeover is part of Roche's efforts to boost activities in personalized medicine, whereby companies develop diagnostic tests to help determine which therapy is the best for a patient....Efforts in the realm of diagnostics should also give pharmac... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3896104 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:14:43 +0100 3896104 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3896105&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Fmkey-upcoming-deadline-for-pathology-informatics-2010-conference.html The Pathology Informatics 2010 conference will take place on 19-22 September at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. It's an amalgam of three previous pathology informatics conferences: (1) APIII, held for 14 years, mainly in Pittsburgh; (2) Lab InfoTech Summit, presented for six years in Lab Vegas; and (3) AIMCL with a 21 year tenure in Ann Arbor.A key date is approaching for those interested in registering for this conference -- August 27. This marks the deadline for the reduced conference registration fee for the event and also for making a reservation at the Copley. A block of rooms have been set aside at the hotel by the conference organizers for registrants at a special price but there is no guarantee that rooms will be available after this date. On-line registration is avail... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3896105 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100 3896105 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889174&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F20%2Fsoftware-update-ephus-scanimage-neuroptikon%2F Three excellent pieces of neuroscience software have been recently updated or freshly released.  I have used two of them, Ephus and ScanImage, on a daily basis as primary data collection tools. The third, Neuroptikon, is quite useful for post-hoc illustration of neural circuits. Ephus is a modular Matlab-based electrophysiology program that can control and record many channels of tools and data simultaneously.  Under control of a sophisticated internal looper or external trigger, you can initiate an ephys recording, trigger camera frames, adjust galvo positions, open/close shutters, trigger optical stimulation, punishments, rewards, etc.  It is a workhorse program for non-imaging related in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology experiments.  Ephus is named for the fabled baseball pitch,... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889174 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:51:53 +0100 3889174 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3885389&cid=t_93454_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F19%2Fhow-many-scientists-does-it-take-to-rediscover-thoreau%2F If you haven’t heard of Henry David Thoreau, you might be forgiven for thinking he has nothing to teach us from his time on this planet 150 years ago. I think that perhaps the 5 scientists who thought they might learn something about the brain and attention by taking a little camping trip could have figured this out by revisiting Thoreau’s writings: I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane a part of every day. - Henry David Thoreau, Journal Even 150 years ago, Thoreau was writing about the... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3885389 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:15:39 +0100 3885389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3881093&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Fbig-pharma-and-net-innovation-trends.html Think quickly when I say "innovation" in relation to healthcare. What types of organizations come quickly to your mind. Hospitals? No. The pharmaceutical industry? No. I personally think of sectors such as medical devices, molecular diagnostics, genomics, medical imaging, biotech. Well, recent trends in the market cap of various healthcare sectors bear out this conclusion (see: The Net Innovation Trend), Below is an excerpt from the article making this point, including pie charts illustrating the comparative value of sectors for 2000 compared to 2008:The relative absence of innovation set against a bloated cost structure has led to a rapid decline in value of large-cap pharmaceuticals, from nearly two-thirds of the market cap of healthcare in 2000 to less than one-third today. Ov... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3881093 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:11:47 +0100 3881093 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876650&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdoctors-in-cubicles-a-barrier-to-patient-care%2F2010.08.17 I present interesting cases to colleagues often because it’s educational and good for patient care and because I like to. But it has been many years since I was mandated to present a case. It seems that I’m not the only doctor exasperated by a pesky new barrier to patient care: Doctors in cubicles. An old friend and mentor, Dr. Richard Kovacs, now chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Board of Governors (and IU guy), has written about these same pre-certification barriers. Dr. Kovacs, being a professor and distinguished ACC official, kindly terms these obstructionists “radiology benefit managers” (RBMs). (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Dr John M* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876650 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0100 3876650 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876655&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fresearch-suggests-autism-could-be-diagnosed-with-a-15-minute-brain-scan%2F2010.08.17 A team of researchers at King’s College of the University of London (KCL) has developed a brain scan which can purportedly detect autism in adults. The scan, which uses MRI to obtain images of the brain, can identify autism based on the physical makeup of grey matter in the brain. Results of an initial study involving the scan were published in the Journal of Neuroscience today. From the article: The team used an MRI scanner to take pictures of the brain’s grey matter. A separate imaging technique was then used to reconstruct these scans into 3D images that could be assessed for structure, shape and thickness — all intricate measurements that reveal Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at its root. The research studied 20 healthy adults, 20 adults with ASD, and 19 adults with A... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876655 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:52 +0100 3876655 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3872750&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Flabcorp-collaborates-with-clearstone-in-global-clinical-trials.html Contract research organizations (CROs) such as Covance and Charles River, particularly those with expertise in clinical and anatomic pathology, have been in the forefront of efforts to develop global networks for collaborative work and information exchange (see: A Look at the World's Largest Central Laboratory Network; Covance's Execution of a Global Virtual Clinical Lab; Charles River Acquires Molecular Imaging Company; Status and Challenges of Offshore Clinical Trials). They are also leading the way in the adoption of digital pathology for their veterinary pathologists (see: Veterinary Pathologists Adopting Digital Pathology Faster than MDs). These networks allow for archiving of digital image files in central global locations plus collaborative efforts across multiple sites in ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3872750 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:49:10 +0100 3872750 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858406&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Fmpathologylinks.html I have just discovered PathologyLinks (Eric's Links) by way of a referral to Lab Soft News. It's a compilation of approximately 230 separate links (there were so many that I lost count) with relevance for the practice of pathology and categorized in the following way: Surgical Pathology (general) Subspecialty Surgical Pathology      Cytopathology Autopsy Histology Anatomy & Physiology Microscopes and Microscopy History of Pathology Other Pathology Resources Bioinformatics Internet Research Eric turns out to be Eric K. Morgen, M.D., an AP resident in the Department of Lab Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. This meta-site is obviously a labor of love for Eric -- great work. We can all derive benefit from his efforts. I could... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858406 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:35:59 +0100 3858406 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3848953&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F09%2Fcameleon-nanos-high-affinity-gecis%2F Takeharu Nagai’s lab has published in Nature Methods, Spontaneous network activity visualized by ultrasensitive Ca2+ indicators, yellow Cameleon-Nano, demonstrating a new set of calcium indicators based on yellow cameleon. Back when he was still Take-san, Take’s ability to churn out and manually screen hundreds of cameleon variants was impressive and inspiring. With high-throughput GECI pipelines now ramping up at Janelia, the idea of laboriously screening 200 variations on a theme (be it cameleons or GluSnFRs), seems a bit archaic. However, this paper is a good example of the progress that can still be made by understanding the needed sensor parameters and fiddling with the primary amino acid structure in a relatively low-throughput way. Take-sensei’s results are another... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3848953 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:52:04 +0100 3848953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3827067&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vimeo.com%2Fmoogaloop.swf%3Fclip_id%3D12251154%26amp%3Bserver%3Dwww.vimeo.com%26amp%3Bfullscreen%3D1%26amp%3Bshow_title%3D1%26amp%3Bshow_byline%3D0%26amp%3Bshow_portrait%3D0%26amp%3Bcolor%3D01AAEA The Speech Production and Articulation Knowledge Group at the University of Southern California (USC) works on very interesting projects. If you’ve ever wondered what an MRI of vocal performance might look like, this is it. From USC: This video illustrates real-time MRI of vocal performance. It includes examples from a soprano and an emcee/beatboxer. This video was featured at the Sounds and Visions Session of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Scientific Sessions, May 2006, Seattle. the diva and the emcee from Krishna Nayak on Vimeo. *This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3827067 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:00:58 +0100 3827067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3827353&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Funverified-update-on-epics-beaker-from-histalk.html I raised the topic of Epic's LIS, Beaker, in a recent note (see: Introducing the Epic Laboratory Information System (LIS); It's Called Beaker). Now comes another unverified piece of news about the product from a comment in HIStalk (see: News 8/4/10), I present it in its entirety:From LISales: “Re: Epic Beaker LIS. Word on the street is that they have one SMALL site using the system within the Wisconsin area, but nothing major yet. I’ve also heard that they are beefing up the development team while including the licensing right to the module within ALL of their enterprise licensing agreements. Also heard is that the functionality is being somewhat oversold compared to actual capability with no desire to develop certain aspects of a full-scale laboratory’s needs, Blood Bank to ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3827353 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:17:41 +0100 3827353 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3823170&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Fseeing-and-understanding-the-world-through-your-iphone-camera.html I still haven't gotten used to the idea that I have a camera in my pocket at all time -- my smart phone. If and when I get my head around this idea, I will be confronted with a new capability. I can use this camera to better understand the world around me. This concept was explained in a recent article from which I quote below (see: Seeing the World Around You Through Your Phone):The best new thing to hit smartphones is augmented reality. These apps, like Goggles (free, for Android phones) and Layar (free, for Android and Apple devices), are like space-age glasses. Point your smartphone in any direction and look through the camera viewer, and it will reveal information about what it sees. Want to know the artist responsible for the print hanging in that restaurant? ....The last selling... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3823170 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:06:17 +0100 3823170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3813210&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Ffirst-annual-definiens-conference-madrid-spain-october.html Item: Definiens has just announced the date for the First Annual Definiens International Symposium. It will be held on October 7-8, 2010, in Madrid. There is no charge to attend the event. Speaker and attendees are expected from  international institutions, bio-pharmaceutical companies, industry partners, and the global healthcare industry. Sessions will include the following topics: Digital pathology image analysis Cell, confocal, and small animal image analysis The developer perspective: Image analysis solution strategies Item: Pathology Visions, a long-running educational event, was initially launched as an Aperio user group, then morphed into a broad multi-vendor-supported conference. After the last conference in 2009, control was turned over to a newly-formed trade association... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3813210 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:22:30 +0100 3813210 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3813146&cid=t_93454_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F08%2F02%2Fopera-under-the-mri%2F Speech Production and Articulation kNowledge Group from the University of Southern California works on very interesting projects. If you have ever wondered what vocal performance migh look like under the MRI real time, here is a video: This video illustrates real-time MRI of vocal performance. It includes examples from a soprano and an emcee/beatboxer. This video was featured at the Sounds and Visions Session, of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Scientific Sessions, May 2006, Seattle. (Source: ScienceRoll) ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3813146 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:24:58 +0100 3813146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3790931&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F07%2Fphilips-makes-major-move-into-digital-pathology.html Philips may be a force to contend with in the increasingly competitive U.S. digital pathology market. The company first unveiled its "work-in-progress" slide scanner and image management system at the USCAP conference last March in Washington, D.C. (see: Philips to unveil breakthrough in digital pathology). Their prototype system has been initially positioned for research but will then transition to clinical use after FDA approval. More recent news is that the company signed an agreement to integrate some of Dako's image analysis applications into Philips'  digital pathology solutions. Company officials have emphasized that anatomic pathology is an essential element in virtually every cancer diagnosis and that demand in this cancer market is increasing.  ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3790931 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:02:50 +0100 3790931 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3790846&cid=t_93454_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F07%2F26%2Fradiopaedia-quizzes-in-radiology%2F A few days ago, I described how I use Quiz.MD for keeping myself up-to-date and just came across a new feature on Radiopaedia, a radiology wiki site I frequently write about. They now offer quizzes which are actually detailed, illustrated case presentations. Really useful and can also help you boost your radiology knowledge. One example: (Source: ScienceRoll) ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3790846 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:56:20 +0100 3790846 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3794941&cid=t_93454_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator-2%2Fupgrades-to-newtom-vgi-and-adds-3d-mobile-cone-beam-imaging-service%2F (Elmsford, NY, June 2, 2010,) AFP Imaging Corporation (OTC. AFPC.PK) announces that McCormack Dental Imaging in Southern California and C?Dental X?Ray in Northern California, the single largest customers of the NewTom 3D Cone Beam Imaging scanners in the US, have upgraded all 12 of their locations from the NewTom 3G to the NewTom VGi. Additionally, McCormack Dental Imaging has expanded its service to include 3D Mobile Imaging as the growth of the NewTom VGi Flex and mobile imaging fleet continues to reach across the country. This latest 3D Mobile Cone Beam unit will operate out of San Diego County and provide enhanced onsite service to both doctors and patients, delivering the highest caliber images for which the NewTom VGi is known. C?Dental X?Ray has provided the bay area dental communit... dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3794941 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:55:30 +0100 3794941 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3794945&cid=t_93454_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator-2%2Fperfect-harmony-cerec-and-galileos%2F (Source: dental blog for dentists about dentistry) dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3794945 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:20:17 +0100 3794945 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3758119&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F07%2Fsome-details-about-diagnostic-adverse-events-daes.html The definition for an "adverse event" appears to be broadening to include problems beyond those associated with drug administration. Here is an example of such a broader definition that I encountered: An unexpected medical problem that happens during treatment with a drug or other therapy. Adverse events do not have to be caused by the drug or therapy, and they may be mild, moderate, or severe. To make things even more interesting, the term adverse event is also logically being split into two subcategories: diagnostic adverse events and therapeutic adverse events. An recent study of the former has revealed that they can have serious consequences (see: Diagnostic Adverse Events Mostly Caused By Human Error). Below is an excerpt from this article:Diagnostic adverse events (DAEs) ha... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3758119 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:17:06 +0100 3758119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3737306&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F07%2Ffrequency-of-video-watching-on-youtube.html I am sure that most of the readers of this blog are aware of YouTube, the web-based video channel and perhaps have watched a video via this site or its various competitors such as Hulu and Google Videos. I also suspect that most of you, like me, have little sense of the volume of activity on such sites. Well, here's some numbers for you to contemplate (see: The Average YouTube User Watched 100 Videos in May):May was a bang-up month for YouTube, according to data released today by the comScore Video Metrix service. Having for the first time achieved the milestone of 100 videos watched per user, the video-sharing site reached an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed in May. Overall, video viewership was on the upswing — in April, data showed that 178 million U.S. users watched on... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3737306 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:09:19 +0100 3737306 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3726658&cid=t_93454_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoctorandpatient.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F07%2Frole-of-masterly-inactivity-in-treating.html Image via WikipediaToday I saw a 28 year old woman who was worried because a 1.0 cm size uterine polyphad been diagnosed on a vaginal ultrasound scan, and two gynecologists had advised that she needed to have surgery to remove this . She wanted a third opinion, because she was understandably reluctant to go through this surgery. A polyp is a benign finger-shaped outgrowth of the uterine lining, and is quite commonly found in young women.The patient had no complaints . The polyp had been detected while doing a routine vaginal ultrasound scan during her annual health checkup ! This was an incidental finding, which was not causing her any problems, but when most doctors are confronted with an " abnormality " the "knee-jerk" reflex response is - "fix it ! After all, if you have a hammer, you a... The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3726658 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:25:00 +0100 3726658 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3710722&cid=t_93454_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F06%2F29%2Fcolonoscopy-through-iphone%2F Medgadget has recently featured a great application, Gyromaniac, that helps students and gastroenterologists about performing colonoscopies and what they exactly see on the monitor. An excerpt from iMedicalApps: A gastroenterologist fellow once jokingly told me how thankful he was for playing too many video games as a child, because it helped him learn how to perform procedures faster. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is actual truth to the statement. An app called Gyromaniac is an example of how the iPhone 4′s new gyroscope feature could actually help physicians practice spatial orientation. Here is how Steve Jobs described this technique: (Via Techcrunch) (Source: ScienceRoll) ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3710722 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:26:00 +0100 3710722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3707017&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fadoption-trends-in-digital-pathology.html I recently posted two guest blog notes by Steve Potts, Ph.D., focusing on the more rapid adoption of digital pathology by veterinary pathologists than MD pathologists (see: Veterinary Pathologists Adopting Digital Pathology Faster than MDs; Reasons Why DVM Pathologists Are Adopting Digital Pathology Faster Than MD Pathologists). Coincidentally, an article has just been published in Laboratory Economics entitled Adoption Trends in Digital Pathology (Volume 5, No. 6, June 2010) that provides survey data on this topic. I copy it in its entirety below.Nearly everyone agrees that digital imaging will play a big role in pathology in the future. Academic medical centers, commercial labs and large independent pathology labs are rapidly installing digital pathology systems. But its use in reimbursa... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3707017 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:16:14 +0100 3707017 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3695825&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Freasons-why-dvm-pathologists-are-adopting-digital-pathology-faster-than-md-pathologists.html This is the second portion of guest blog note written by Steve Potts, PhD. The first was posted yesterday (see: Veterinary Pathologists Adopting Digital Pathology Faster than MDs). Steve is the CEO of Flagship Biosciences, a pathologist-owned CRO and provider of digital pathology services in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.I would propose the following reasons why the adoption of digital pathology among DVM pathologists is faster than among their MD counterparts: Veterinary pathologists have benefited from the development of a strategic, forward-looking vision by pathologists working in executive management at the various pharmaceutical companies. These individuals are required to manage studies generating hundreds, if not thousands, of slides each and requiring review... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3695825 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:38:02 +0100 3695825 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3691123&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fwhy-are-v.html This is a guest blog note written by Steve Potts, PhD. Steve is the CEO of Flagship Biosciences, a pathologist-owned CRO and provider of digital pathology services in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.There are approximately 1,200 board-certified veterinary pathologists in the U.S. working in a variety of settings including veterinary schools, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, governmental agencies, and contract research organizations (CROs). Approximately 500 veterinary pathologists work in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry with a consistent industry average of about one pathologist per one billion dollars in annual company revenue. I have had the privilege of working closely with many of these veterinary pathologists for the last three years after working for a large ref... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3691123 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:48:47 +0100 3691123 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3687098&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmedical-testing-doctors-and-x-ray-vision%2F2010.06.22 Boston Celtics basketball player Kendrick Perkins injured his knee during the NBA Finals against the Lakers when he landed awkwardly. Unable to weightbear, he left Game 6 not to return for the following pivotal Game 7. Based on his mechanism of injury and his physical examination, his trainer reported that he tore his medial collateral ligament (MCL) as well as the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). More amazingly, this was done without the help of a MRI. Since Perkins was unable to play the final game, there was no urgent medical need to expedite the test, as regardless of the result his season was already done. How do doctors know what’s wrong without X-ray vision or an imaging test? (Note that Perkins did get a X-ray, but X-rays generally don’t show ligament injuries.) Is it... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3687098 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:00:00 +0100 3687098 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3679828&cid=t_93454_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthblawg.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Fmike-barber-interview-w-david-harlow-on-healthblawg-062010.mp3 What if you could improve health care across the three intransigent parameters of cost, access and quality by 15%?  That's the challenge GE has set out for itself in the form of its current five-year Healthymagination campaign, and it's investing $6 billion in the effort.  I caught up with GE's VP for Healthymagination, Mike Barber, recently, and I invite you to listen in on our conversation about GE's efforts in the US and globally, within GE's health care business unit and beyond, to roll out this major investment -- which, obviously, GE expects to yield a return in the future.The audio file of my interview with Mike Barber (about 20 minutes long) is available for listening or download:  A full transcript is at the end of this post (and in the linked Mike Barber, VP, Healt... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3679828 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:07:01 +0100 3679828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3659168&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fthe-criticality-of-performing-both-tc-and-pc-in-incources-labs.html Discussion: Insourcing of Pathology Specimens by Specialty Groups; Consideration of the Underlying Forces that Promote Pathology Insourcing). Pathology services, for reimbursement purposes, are separated into two components referred to as TC (technical component) and PC (professional component). The term global billing applies if a single fee is used to cover both parts. Joe Plandowski has shared with me a letter that he sent to Mark H. Stoler, M.D., president of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), on March 31, 2010. In it he discusses the integration of insourced pathology services as they relate to TC and PC. I quote it below:Besides eliminating CMS payments to pod labs, I advocate eliminating CMS payments to any in-office anatomic pathology laboratory that is not perform... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3659168 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:04:37 +0100 3659168 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3645069&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fw.html I recently posted a note announcing a webinar on the insourcing of pathology specimens (see: Webinar on the "Insourcing" of Pathology Specimens by Clinical Practice Groups). The title of the presentation indicates the need to "fight back" against the practice. Graham Grieve submitted the following comment: Why is [specimen insourcing] a threat to the specialty of pathology? Shortly afterward, Joe Plandowski sent the following note to me that I now offer to readers as a guest blog. What is wrong with "in-sourcing" of specimens by specialty groups? Consider these points: Many large, and not so large, GI and Uro specialists have moved out of the hospital into their own facilities for patient procedures (e.g., ASCs [ambulatory surgery centers] and Endoscopy Center... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3645069 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:06:33 +0100 3645069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3644765&cid=t_93454_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fovertreatment-when-less-is-more-in-medicine%2F2010.06.08 The Associated Press recent article “Overtreated: More medical care isn’t always better” reiterated a commonly known fact which is not understood by the public. This problem of doing more and yet getting little in return is a common issue which plagues the U.S. healthcare system and was illustrated quite convincingly by Shannon Brownlee’s book. Americans get more procedures, interventions, imaging, and tests but aren’t any healthier. In fact they are often worse off. Too many unnecessary back surgeries. Too many antibiotics for viral infections, which aren’t at all impacted by these anti-bacterial therapies. Too many heart stents which typically are best used when someone is actually having a heart attack. Research shows that those that are treated with ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3644765 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:00:00 +0100 3644765 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3641342&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fwebinar-on-the-insourcing-of-pathology-specimens-by-clinical-practice-groups.html In my opinion, one of the greatest threats to the specialty of pathology is the "insourcing" of pathology specimens by large clinical practice groups, usually urologists and gastroenterologists. I have posted previous notes about this practice in which I have referred to the construction of in-office histopathology labs (see: Pathologist Satisfaction with "Pod Lab" Positions; Corrected Definition for a Pod Lab and a Look at In-Office Labs). The basic concept is that the clinical groups processes their own tissue specimens and then contract with a pathologists to generate the interpretive reports. Fees for both the technical and professional components are collected by the group. The Pathology Business Institute is offering a webinar entitled Fight Back Against the Insou... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3641342 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:57:00 +0100 3641342 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3629885&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Ffnhs-to-attempt-large-trial-of-personalized-cancer-therapy.html You will discover various definitions for personalized medicine in a web search. I prefer the term targeted therapy because "personalized" is often misunderstood by healthcare consumers to refer to their personal preferences for services. In my view, personalized medicine usually refers to the treatment of cancer. In this same context, the basic idea is to identify the genetic characteristics of a malignant lesion and then attempt to tailor the treatment of it in a manner that eradicates the tumor without unduly harming the patient. This has largely been a theoretical construct in healthcare delivery despite the wide use of biotech drugs because of the genomic complexity of cancer cells. We are now moving in a more practical direction. As one example, the non-profit Cancer Resear... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3629885 Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:21:19 +0100 3629885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3625793&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fpresence-and-attributes-of-ctcs-as-a-prognostic-factor-in-cancer-patients.html I believe that a new chapter in the history of cancer diagnosis is now being written through the analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTSs) and their comparison with cells of the primary malignant lesion. A summary of a recent research article provides a fitting prologue for the discussion here (see: Circulating tumour cells tied to poorer survival in pancreatic cancer sufferers), Below is an excerpt from it:Circulating tumour cells are associated with poorer survival in pancreatic cancer patients, a new American research has found. The study  conducted by researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, also uncovered evidence that not all circulating tumour cells are the same, and some may predict worse outcomes than others....Previous work has demonstrated that prostate, colon, or brea... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3625793 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:57:20 +0100 3625793 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607838&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F05%2Fpathology-visions-conference-presented-in-san-diego-on-october-2427-by-the-dpa.html Take a look at the Pathology Visions Conference web site. This excellent conference, now sponsored and managed by the Digital Pathology Association, will take place October 24-27, 2010, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. Five difference components of the digital pathology field will be emphasized: Clinical, Drug Development, Research, Education, and IT. Here's a list of current exhibitors. You can register on-line. Applications for oral presentations and poster are being solicited. (Source: Lab Soft News) Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607838 Thu, 27 May 2010 16:18:43 +0100 3607838 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3595916&cid=t_93454_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F05%2Fneed-for-technololgy-evangelists-in-pathology-departments.html Here's a question for all of the readers of Lab Soft News. Do you think that pathologists in particular, and physicians in general, are more or less accepting of new technology than other professionals of the same educational level and income? I don't know the answer to this question but I do believe that the adoption of digital pathology has been much slower than I would have predicted a year or two ago. There are are number of compelling reasons for this, some of which I have documented in this blog. However, I come away with the following idea: most pathologists are very receptive to new science but not necessarily to new technology based on this science, particularly when the technology disrupts established lab workflow or invokes changes in the status quo (see: Major Drivers f... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3595916 Tue, 25 May 2010 11:33:52 +0100 3595916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607655&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F05%2F24%2Fallen-brain-institute-adds-human-brain-data%2F Expression data is now available for over 60K gene probes over the entire human brain. Click here to access this monster data set! More info after the jump. Press release: Dear Colleague, I am writing to let you know that we have just launched our first data set mapping gene expression across an adult human brain.   As with all Allen Institute Atlases, the data is freely available at www.brain-map.org For this first release, we have included: · Spatially mapped microarray data for over 700 distinct anatomic locations throughout the brain and containing information for over 62,000 gene probes with 93% of known genes represented by at least 2 probes · A hierarchical anatomic naming system (ontology) integrating leading schemes for different brain regions · Searches by anatomic region, ... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607655 Mon, 24 May 2010 18:48:33 +0100 3607655 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3595711&cid=t_93454_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F05%2F24%2Fallen-brain-institute-adds-human-brain-data%2F Expression data is now available for over 60K gene probes over the entire human brain. Click here to access this monster data set! More info after the jump. Press release: Dear Colleague, I am writing to let you know that we have just launched our first data set mapping gene expression across an adult human brain.   As with all Allen Institute Atlases, the data is freely available at www.brain-map.org For this first release, we have included: · Spatially mapped microarray data for over 700 distinct anatomic locations throughout the brain and containing information for over 62,000 gene probes with 93% of known genes represented by at least 2 probes · A hierarchical anatomic naming system (ontology) integrating leading schemes for different brain regions · Searches by anatomic region, ... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3595711 Mon, 24 May 2010 18:48:33 +0100 3595711 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3581697&cid=t_93454_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fehr-software-market-share-analysis Calculating market share for the electronic health record (EHR) market is no easy task. There are over 300 software vendors, many market segments (consider: size of practice served, specialties services, inpatient/outpatient) and very “fuzzy” sources of data. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3581697 Thu, 20 May 2010 14:18:03 +0100 3581697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3581563&cid=t_93454_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F19%2Fcardiac-imaging-a-report-from-the-national-imaging-board-march-2010%2F Title: Cardiac imaging: a report from the National Imaging Board March 2010 Skinny: Resource to stimulate development of effective cardiac imaging services.  The report represents the current status of a rapidly evolving field of imaging and is evidenced where such information exists. It has been produced in response to numerous requests for information on cardiac imaging services.2010-11  will  see  a change of direction brought about by tougher economic circumstances. The report outlines many opportunities which can be used to transform  cardiac  services  and  support  the  QIPP (quality, innovation, productivity and prevention) agenda. It illustrates how the NHS can improve quality,  safety  and  productivity while  working  across  disciplines to deliver better care fo... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3581563 Wed, 19 May 2010 18:54:54 +0100 3581563 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577333&cid=t_93454_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F19%2Fradioactive-medicinal-product-shortage%2F Title: Radioactive medicinal product shortage Skinny: Dear Collegue Letter on the shortage Molybdenum-99 (99Mo) that are expected to continue during 2010. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 43p. Published: 16/03/2010 Filed under: Diagnosis, Grey Literature Tagged: Dear Colleague Letters, Diagnosis, Grey Literature, Imaging (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577333 Wed, 19 May 2010 11:43:43 +0100 3577333