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New Cancer Disparity Data, Purging Your PACS, and Ghost Scanning
October 27, 2025
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Together with
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Enterprise imaging company Mach7 Technologies has set a new strategic direction with the recent hiring of healthcare IT veteran Teri Thomas as CEO. We caught up with her in this episode of The Imaging Wire Show to discuss her changes at the company and her plans for moving forward.
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Cancer screening disparities continue to draw scrutiny in radiology. A new study in JAMA Network Open takes a closer look at why some people don’t get screened as often as they should – as well as the factors that contribute to cancer prevalence and mortality.
There’s extensive research backing the lifesaving potential of the major cancer screening exams, and cancer mortality rates have consistently declined thanks to the combination of screening and better treatments.
- But the declines are uneven, prompting researchers to investigate reasons for the disparities, such as in a study earlier this month documenting geographic variations in cancer screening rates.
In the new study, researchers from the ACR’s Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute looked at how 24 measures like lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and environmental background affected breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer, which account for 50% of new cancer cases.
- In particular, they examined screening completion rates and cancer prevalence and mortality at the county level in a nationally representative sample of 5% of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, of whom 87% were 65 years and older.
There’s a lot to unpack in the study, but a few highlights are below as they relate to breast and lung cancer, the two cancers for which imaging-based screening is recommended. The top three factors affecting each (in order of importance) are…
- Breast cancer:
- Screening rates – Hispanic population share, levels of insufficient sleep, and poverty.
- Prevalence – uninsured status, obesity, and housing insecurity.
- Mortality – non-Hispanic Black race, environmental justice index, and insufficient sleep.
- Lung cancer:
- Screening rates – air pollution exposure, lack of access to primary care physicians, and number of poor physical health days.
- Prevalence – limited access to healthy foods, uninsured status, and severe housing problems.
- Mortality – smoking, poor physical health days, and environmental justice index.
While there are some obvious findings in the data (the connection between smoking and lung cancer mortality, for example), the dominance of socioeconomic measures may take some by surprise (or maybe not).
- But they do track with previous research finding that socioeconomic factors account for 40-50% of health impacts.
The Takeaway
The new study – as with previous research – reinforces what we know about the strong connection between socioeconomic status and cancer screening disparities. The new data should give clinicians and public health advocates more detail on the specific factors they need to focus on to improve screening compliance and reduce cancer’s burden on society.
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A Bold Transformation in Client Experience
Intelerad is transforming how it supports customers and partners with clients through a company-wide Client Obsession initiative. The company is making investments in new tools, technologies, and staff to remove friction and deliver value – find out how it works on this page.
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Learn a New Subspecialty in 5 Minutes a Day
Become a faster, more confident radiologist with expert-led online video courses from Medality. Gain simulated practice with the largest collection of curated, scrollable DICOM cases available anywhere. Browse their library of radiology courses today.
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- Global Inequalities in Women’s Health: Healthcare disparities also exist on a global scale, especially in women’s health. The VENUSCANCER study in The Lancet of 275.8k women worldwide tracked differences in detection and treatment for breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer. Researchers found that for breast and cervical cancer, 40% of women in high-income nations had their cancer detected at an early stage, compared with less than 20% for women in low- and middle-income countries. Too many women in LMICs are diagnosed with advanced disease.
- Cost-Effectiveness of PSMA-PET: PET with radiotracers that bind to PSMA is a powerful technology for detecting prostate cancer. But is it worth the cost in patients with biochemically recurring prostate cancer? A new model-based analysis in JAMA Network Open raises questions, finding that compared to CT plus bone scan, PSMA-PET led to higher mean quality-adjusted life years (7.12 vs. 6.55). But it also resulted in higher treatment costs ($451k vs. $351k) and produced an ICER of $172k per QALY, exceeding the willingness-to-pay threshold of $150k.
- PET Predicts Heart Attack Recovery: PET can predict which patients might have poor functional recovery after an acute myocardial infarction. In a new paper in JNM, researchers from Germany tested PET with 68-gallium-pentixafor, a radiotracer that detects expression of CXCR4, a protein that plays a role in inflammation. Cardiac PET/CT scans of 49 heart attack patients found that the area of CXCR4 uptake predicted left ventricular ejection fraction, a sign of positive ventricular remodeling.
- CARPL Scores Australia Installation: AI platform company CARPL.ai scored a big contract in Australia to deploy its technology across Qscan Group, one of the country’s largest outpatient imaging networks. Qscan centers will be able to use their existing Intelerad PACS interface to access a variety of AI algorithms via CARPL, including tools to interpret CT lung cancer screening exams as part of Australia’s national screening program that began earlier this year.
- When Is It Safe to Purge Your PACS? When it comes to old medical imaging exams in your PACS archive, how old is too old? In a new study in JIIM, researchers looked at image access rates in an archive with 4.3M images over 10 years old. Some 5% of the images were accessed over a two-year period, and many were prior exams viewed for clinical purposes, with 41% mammography, 24% radiography, 12% CT, and the rest other modalities. So you may be better off keeping your older imaging exams.
- Environmental Cost of CT Storage: On the other hand, researchers found that there’s an environmental cost to long-term storage of medical imaging scans. In a study in European Radiology, researchers focused on long-term storage at a U.K. hospital of post-processed endometrial cancer CT scans, which authors characterized as “nonessential” images. Storing all the U.K.’s post-processed endometrial CT images on-premises would generate greenhouse gases equal to 381 metric tons CO2 equivalent over 20 years, but emissions could be cut by up to 89% with more selective storage strategies.
- How Scary Are Ghost Scans? What about scans that never get saved at all? A new analysis in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine examines “ghost scans,” when point of care ultrasound scans are performed but never archived. The study calculated ghost scan prevalence in the emergency setting at four sites, finding that for 6.1k patients only 50% of POCUS exams were saved, with ghost scanning rates ranging from 21% to 93%. Ghost scanning has implications for accreditation, liability, billing, quality assurance, and patient care.
- Startup roclub Targets Tech Shortage: A startup from Germany called roclub raised $11.7M in a Series A funding round to commercialize its solution for enabling remote support of radiologic technologists. The company’s roclub connector attaches to any medical device with a monitor and enables remote access and control from anywhere with direct video and audio links between care teams. roclub is already in use in Europe, and the company plans to use the newly raised funds to enter the U.S. market.
- Are Doctors Really Leaving Medicare? A new study in JAMA countered the notion that physicians are fleeing the Medicare program on a widespread basis, but it did discover disturbing trends in doctor departures. Overall, from 2013 to 2023, researchers found that the number of physicians participating in Medicare grew 6.3%, but doctors who did leave were more likely to be female, older, or working in primary care. Exits were also more common among physicians working in nonmetropolitan counties and in areas designated as having healthcare personnel shortages.
- Qure Gets FDA Nod for Brain AI: Qure.ai received FDA clearance for qER-CTA, an AI algorithm for detecting large vessel occlusions on brain CT angiography scans. The algorithm analyzes the internal carotid artery and M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery, supporting faster patient triage and specialist notification in the emergency setting. The clearance builds on Qure’s portfolio of AI algorithms (now with 19 FDA clearances) and adds to other neurological AI solutions in the company’s portfolio.
- Subtle Touts Gadolinium Reduction: Subtle Medical is highlighting results from a proof-of-concept clinical study showing the potential of its SubtleGAD AI-based image reconstruction technology for reducing gadolinium contrast dose in MRI scans. Subtle partnered with Bayer on the study, in which SubtleGAD was used to reconstruct the brain MRI scans of 39 patients who got a reduced contrast dose. Findings suggest the AI-synthesized reduced-dose images had comparable image quality to standard-dose images.
- NHS to Study AI Fracture Detection: The U.K.’s National Health Service is launching a randomized controlled trial to assess use of AI to assist in fracture detection in the emergency setting. The SAMURAI Pro study will be performed under Oxford University’s OxCAIR lab and will use the RBfracture algorithm from Radiobotics. The NHS sees AI as a potential solution to the country’s persistent workforce challenges.
- Radiation Deregulation: As radiology processes recent research studies on the link between medical radiation and cancer risk, the U.S. government is debating an overhaul of the country’s radiation exposure rules. The proposal would no longer base workplace radiation protection rules on the linear no-threshold theory – which holds that there’s no safe level of radiation exposure – and could result in occupational dose limits 100X to 1000X higher than currently allowed. Ramifications of the proposal were explored in an intriguing article published earlier this month.
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Unlocking Precision – A New Era of AI-Powered CT
AI is transforming diagnostic imaging, especially in CT. Discover how Prof. Davide Ippolito is leading the way with the Philips CT 5300, pioneering ways to reduce radiation dose while improving image quality and setting a new standard for the future of CT.
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AI for Pediatric Fracture Detection
Pediatric fractures are common but can be easily missed on radiography. Meanwhile, AI tools for fracture detection have mostly been tested in adults. Learn how Gleamer’s BoneView AI solution helped clinicians find fractures in kids in a recent research study.
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- Unlock Next-Generation AI with Foundation Models: Learn about Microsoft’s new family of cutting-edge multimodal medical imaging foundation models designed for healthcare organizations to test, fine-tune, and build tailored AI solutions specific to their needs, while minimizing extensive compute and data requirements.
- Echo AI Automation Improves Sonographer Workflow: The use of AI-based automated tools enhanced the efficiency of screening echocardiography, reducing exam times despite a 3.4-fold increase in parameters measured. Discover how it was done on this page from Us2.ai.
- Adding Digital Pathology to Enterprise Imaging: In this on-demand video hosted by Mach7 Technologies, watch as a panel of industry experts discusses how to add digital pathology images into a healthcare organization’s overall enterprise imaging strategy.
- Bring Your Radiology AI into Your Clinical Workflows: CARPL enables healthcare providers and researchers to develop, test, and deploy their own AI models within existing clinical infrastructure. From seamless data ingestion and de-identification to model training, packaging, and live deployment, CARPL provides an end-to-end environment tailored for radiology.
- The Future of Fluoroscopy Is Here: The future of fluoroscopy has arrived. The LUMINOS Q.namix fluoroscopy systems from Siemens Healthineers are available on the U.S. market. Discover why they have already earned the prestigious Red Dot Design Award for intuitive design and user-centric innovation.
- Reimagining Radiology with Apple Vision Pro: Discover how Apple Vision Pro is helping to pioneer what’s possible in radiology in this special event in Chicago during RSNA 2025. Hear from key opinion leaders and Visage Imaging executives on how spatial computing is transforming radiology.
- What Healthcare Really Needs from AI: The AI hype cycle has flooded healthcare with promises, yet many tools fail to deliver real-world impact. Reserve your seat at this October 29 webinar hosted by Rad AI to hear healthcare leaders share their real-world experiences in making AI work.
- Tools for Lung Cancer Screening in Europe: As lung cancer screening programs gear up to launch across various European countries, the integration of AI nodule detection tools promises to enhance the accuracy of low-dose CT scans. Watch this video from Riverain Technologies to learn more.
- Planning for Data Migration Success: When UCSF Health’s enterprise imaging team needed to bring two new hospitals into their network, a new data migration project was born. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn how UCSF ensured a successful migration by working with Laitek, an Enlitic company.
- New-generation Platform for Managing Multi-Omics Data: QP-Insights from Quibim is a new-generation advanced platform for the management, storage, and analysis of large-scale multi-omics data and medical images for clinical studies and research projects. Learn more on this page.
- Redefining Breast Imaging in the Enterprise Era: As breast imaging grows more complex, radiology teams need more than siloed tools. Watch this on-demand webinar hosted by AGFA HealthCare about transforming breast imaging workflows in the enterprise imaging era.
- Elevating Generative Reporting to the Web: Learn about the next leap in patient-focused diagnostic imaging with KailoFlow, the web-based evolution of Kailo Medical’s generative structured reporting platform that combines progress, innovation, and accessibility.
- Workflow Orchestration to Revolutionize Imaging: Intelligent teleradiology solutions can combat radiologist shortages with smarter workflows that reduce burnout and improve patient care. Find out how workflow orchestration solutions from Merge are making it possible.
- Cutting-Edge PET/CT to Support Theranostics: Theranostics is an exciting new field that combines diagnostics and therapy. Discover how Florida Theranostics is using United Imaging’s uMI Panorama PET/CT scanner to establish a high-quality level of patient care.
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