How cool would it be to have real-time images streaming across your field of vision? It could be practical in daily life (navigation information, e-mails), commercially profitable (“hey, loyal Starbucks customer, stop in for a Frappuccino just 10 steps ahead on your left”) or simply fun (video game displays). But it’s also easy to imagine medical uses.

Implanted body sensors could … read more »

The delicacy of some crystalline molecules has led to a new X-ray technique that may eventually reduce radiation doses for human patients.

B.C. Wang, PhD, studies molecules. (He’s Ramsey-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology at the University of Georgia in Athens). X-ray crystallography—bombarding molecules’ crystalline forms with X-rays—reveals the position of chemical bonds and other important properties.

However, large molecules, … read more »

The virtual autopsy—using CT, MRI, or both instead of conventional invasive procedures—shows promise but isn’t ready for prime time.

That’s the conclusion (phrased somewhat differently) of a new study published online Tuesday in The Lancet. However, the study did say:
If used as a pre-autopsy screen, imaging might avoid unnecessary autopsies (e.g., for ruptured aortic aneurysm), identify lesions difficult to diagnose by … read more »

Here’s a surprising contention: Medicare has already cut spending on imaging too much.

It comes from the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a trade group for makers of medical imaging equipment. So perhaps it’s not so surprising.

MITA said in a Wednesday news release that, according to its own analysis of Medicare data, spending on imaging for each Medicare beneficiary has … read more »

Radiologist Ray Harron, MD, of Bridgeport, West Virginia, is fighting in court to restore his reputation six years after a federal judge in Texas shredded it in a case involving silica-related lung disease.

CSX Transportation, the target of thousands of lawsuits over the years alleging that it exposed employees to lung-damaging asbestos, has turned the tables and sued Dr. Harron and … read more »

A blood test could determine whether emergency patients with suspected traumatic brain injury need a CT scan—and might replace some CT scans.

So concludes a preliminary study published online Thursday in Annals of Emergency Medicine. The researchers discovered that patients with TBI had significantly higher blood levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) than those without.

In a statement, Linda Papa, MDCM, … read more »

Electronic sharing of patient information among all 12 major emergency departments in the Memphis, Tennessee, area resulted in annual savings of nearly $2 million, mostly because of reduced hospital admissions, according to a study published online last week in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Interestingly, the study found that electronic health information exchange (HIE) use increased some types … read more »