American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in its 2023 Cancer Progress Report.

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Ultrasound

POCUS Cuts DVT Stays

Using POCUS in the emergency department (ED) to scan patients with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) cut their length of stay in the ED in half. 

Reducing hospital length of stay is one of the holy grails of healthcare quality improvement. 

• It’s not only more expensive to keep patients in the hospital longer, but it can expose them to morbidities like hospital-acquired infections.

Patients admitted with suspected DVT often receive ultrasound scans performed by radiologists or sonographers to determine whether the blood clot is at risk of breaking off – a possibly fatal result. 

• But this requires a referral to the radiology department. What if emergency physicians performed the scans themselves with POCUS?

To answer this question, researchers at this week’s European Emergency Medicine Conference presented results from a study of 93 patients at two hospitals in Finland.

• From October 2017 to October 2019, patients presenting at the ED received POCUS scans from emergency doctors trained on the devices. 

Results were compared to 135 control patients who got usual care and were sent directly to radiology departments for ultrasound. 

• Researchers found that POCUS reduced ED length of stay from 4.5 hours to 2.3 hours, a drop of 52%.

Researchers described the findings as “convincing,” especially as they occurred at two different facilities. The results also answer a recent study that found POCUS only affected length of stay when performed on the night shift. 

The Takeaway
Radiology might not be so happy to see patient referrals diverted from their department, but the results are yet another feather in the cap for POCUS, which continues to show that – when in the right hands – it can have a big impact on healthcare quality.

Revolutionizing CT from Referral to Report

GE HealthCare has developed Effortless Workflow to streamline the entire CT process with technologies like AI and deep learning and provide a seamless scanning experience. Learn more in this November 9 webinar.

Avoiding the Mid-Career Stall

Join us on September 25 for the final installment in a series of #RadEqual webinars hosted by Intelerad on avoiding the mid-career stall. Hear from Jennifer Harvey, MD, and Maureen Kohli, MD, as they discuss strategies to guide your career and find your circle of influence.

The Wire

• Cancer Mortality Decline: Cancer mortality in the US continues to decline. In its 2023 Cancer Progress Report, the AACR said that the cancer mortality rate has fallen 33% from 1991 to 2020, translating into 3.8M fewer cancer deaths. Driving the decline in recent years is a falling lung cancer death rate, which AACR said has accelerated from falling 0.9% annually from 1995-2005 to an annual decline of almost 5% from 2014-2020 due to less smoking and advances in early detection and treatment. Maybe CT lung cancer screening has been more successful than we thought.

• Prost! CT at Oktoberfest: And you thought you had a great job. German researchers took a Siemens Healthineers CT scanner in a mobile coach to Oktoberfest 2022 in Munich, describing their experiences in a research letter in NEJM. They scanned 205 revelers with suspected mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), referring 17 to hospital based on CT findings. The scanner seemed to divert some referrals, as mean weekend hospital admissions per day fell in 2022 compared to previous Oktoberfests (118 vs. 137), while weekday admissions fell too (63 vs. 76).

• Free MRI Scanner? No Thanks: The Canadian province of Saskatchewan has turned down an offer from a philanthropist to donate $2M (Canadian) toward the purchase of a new MRI scanner. An article on CBC.ca describes how provincial authorities declined Elaine Walkom’s offer to pay for the scanner and two technologists to run it, saying that the project required “a thorough plan.” Canada has been grappling with long waits for imaging exams; Walkom said she was “dumbstruck” by the refusal. 

• Abbott Recalls Implants: Abbott Medical is recalling two brands of implantable pulse generators (IPGs) after finding problems with the devices’ MRI compatibility modes. The FDA said the company’s Proclaim and Infinity families of IPG devices for conditions like spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion stimulation may not deactivate from MRI mode, during which they suspend delivery of therapeutic pulses. The agency said there have been 186 reported incidents with the devices and 73 injuries, but no deaths.

• GE and Mayo Partner: Industry heavyweights GE HealthCare and Mayo Clinic have signed a clinical and research partnership to advance new technologies in diagnosis and therapy. The collaboration seeks to develop more precise and personalized patient care through clinical translation of novel technologies, and covers MRI, theranostic agents, diagnostic and interventional ultrasound, and AI and digital health. GE HealthCare has made theranostics a major R&D emphasis. 

• Radiology’s Diversity Problem: New research about anesthesiology residents says a lot about radiology’s ongoing lack of representation by women and under-represented minorities. In a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia, radiology lagged most other specialties in the percentage of entering residents from 2009-2019 who were women or minorities (9th and 8th out of 11). On the positive side, radiology starting in 2018 saw strong growth in the percentage of young researchers getting K series career development awards from the NIH, a sign of a specialty’s strength in research. 

• Breast Screening Linked to Lower Mortality: While some debate the value of cancer screening, a new study in JAMA Network Open found that better access to mammography screening was linked to lower breast cancer mortality. Researchers analyzed county-by-county US breast cancer mortality rates from 2015-2019 and examined the effect of 33 variables. Obesity contributed to higher mortality across the country, while counties with a higher proportion of women screened had lower mortality rates. The effect of other factors varied depending on region.

• HAP Picks Up Va. Practice: Revenue cycle management company Healthcare Administrative Partners (HAP) has added Hampton Roads Radiology Associates (HRRA) to its list of customers. HRRA offers interventional and diagnostic imaging services in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area, serving three hospitals and multiple imaging centers. HAP will provide core revenue cycle services including billing, coding, carrier credentialing, business intelligence, and MIPS measure assurance services, as well as comprehensive practice management services.

• Radiologist Productivity Debate: Should radiology practices share productivity metrics for their individual radiologists internally as part of quality improvement programs? AJR published a point/counterpoint debate on the issue, with two radiologists offering thoughtful remarks. Jonathan Medverd, MD, advocated full disclosure of metrics, arguing that productivity transparency is best for long-term success. But Ronnie Sebro, MD, PhD, cautioned against revealing metrics like RVU production and report turnaround times as they may not be the best way to measure a radiologist’s value to a practice. 

• Texas Launches Combo AI/MD Degree: Medical students attending the University of Texas San Antonio will be able to earn a Master of Science in AI degree along with their MD under a new program believed to be the first in the US. The combo MD/MS program is designed to prepare future physicians for healthcare’s AI-oriented future and includes three tracks: data analytics, computer science, and intelligent and autonomous systems. 

• Providers Boost IT Investment: A Bain & Company and KLAS survey of 200 provider executives suggests that we might have finally passed the low point of the investment downturn, with 80% of health systems reporting that they “materially increased” spending on software and IT in the past year. Most of the findings echo trends we’ve seen before (point solutions = bad, EHR integration = good), but there were some good insights on how AI strategy is moving from IT departments to the C-suite.

• RSNA Launches Market Insights: RSNA is moving into the market research segment, launching a new service called RSNA Market Insights that provides “reliable and affordable” business reports on radiology. The reports are targeted at industry business managers and will offer data analytics and insights from radiologists. There are two reports, one on radiologist perspectives on AI ($4,920) and another on radiologist practice segmentation ($2,880).

See the Future of MRI with Synthetic Imaging

Synthetic imaging is poised to reshape medical imaging with dramatically faster image acquisition. Learn how Subtle Medical’s SubtleSYNTH will revolutionize the MRI experience in this September 21 webinar.

Reducing Diagnostic Errors

There are about 40 million imaging-related diagnostic errors occurring every year. Find out how Annalise.ai’s comprehensive AI solutions can reduce errors and improve diagnostic performance in this demo.

To Pay or Not to Pay for AI in Radiology

AI-supported digital applications are expected to transform radiology, but providers need motivation and incentives to adopt them. In this article, authors including executives from Bayer propose a framework to guide payers and AI developers in adoption of radiology AI.

The Resource Wire

• Texas has one of the highest obesity rates in the US. So to best serve its patients, Memorial MRI & Diagnostic in Houston turned to United Imaging and its 3.0T uMR OMEGA MRI scanner with 75cm ultra-wide-bore. Learn more about their story. 

• Get to know Clearpath and its novel approach to empowering patients by giving them digital access to their images and medical records in this video interview from SIIM 2023. 

• See how Dubai-based healthcare leader Aster DM Healthcare leveraged the CARPL platform to connect its doctors, data scientists, and imaging workflows, and support its AI projects and development infrastructure.

• More AI applications are becoming available, but many healthcare organizations are reporting challenges to achieving the benefits of the technology. Learn how Merge AI Orchestrator can provide access to AI without disrupting workflow.

• Data standardization has emerged as a key issue for both clinical and research aspects of medical imaging. Learn about its pivotal role in healthcare in this Enlitic webinar on October 25 featuring radiologist Cheryl Petersilge, MD, founder and CEO of Vidagos. 

• Now available on-demand: Learn how to optimize your CT workflow from scan to reconstruction in this webinar recording. Find out how NYU Langone Health leverages technologies from Siemens Healthineers to streamline their workflow and improve patient care. 

• Despite significant interest, there’s still confusion about the value of imaging AI. This Blackford Analysis white paper explores the key cost considerations and ROI factors that radiology groups can use to figure out how to make AI valuable for them.

• Every missed appointment can cost providers an average of $200. PocketHealth’s new Appointment Reminders service can decrease no-show rates by up to 30%. Find out how in this article. 

• CT lung cancer screening has been shown to reduce lung cancer mortality. In this Imaging Wire Show, we discuss how to set up CT lung screening and the technologies available to help with Chip Gilkeson, MD, of University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Steve Worrell of Riverain Technologies.

• Allina Health needed to replace its on-premises PACS to better serve patients. Learn how Allina turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Visage Imaging for a cloud-based implementation of the Visage 7 enterprise imaging platform. 

• How can your imaging facility create a foundation for MRI safety? Learn from MRI safety expert Tobias Gilk on the best practices for creating a safe environment in this podcast with Medality. 

• Transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis is emerging as an under-recognized form of heart failure, especially in the elderly. In this video, Marianna Fontana, MD, PhD, of UCL describes how Us2.ai technology was used to assess ATTR. 

• What’s happening at the intersection of AI and precision medicine? In this Imaging Wire Show, we talked to Chiranjiv Singh, general manager at Tempus Radiology, about their vision for building a 360° view of the patient.

• What’s the best way to eliminate patient frustration and get them engaged with healthcare again? Find out how technology can revamp the patient engagement experience in this article produced in collaboration with Nuance in Becker’s Hospital Review.

• Trying to decide between public and private cloud? Watch this brief Change Healthcare animation detailing the operational benefits of public cloud hosting for imaging.