Study: Bone Scans Can Wait For Most Women

Medicare will pay for a bone-density scan every two years, so that’s how often many woman 65 or older get one. Not so fast, says a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study followed 4,957 women 67 or older who did not have osteoporosis at the beginning of the study. Of the women who began with normal … read more »

How do you precisely shape a hollow silicon wafer one thousandth of a millimeter in diameter? Scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston have figured out a way. Their efforts may result in a better way to destroy breast cancer cells.

The wafers have to be exactly the right shape and size to bind to breast cancer cells and … read more »

The new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will get more than $3 billion over the next decade to conduct “comparative effectiveness” research and suggest the best ways to treat various illnesses. Will anybody listen?

Don’t bet on it, suggests a Kaiser Health News article. Writer Julie Appleby cites the example of vertebroplasty—the injection of medical cement into compression fractures of the … read more »

About 23 percent of the time, an old-fashioned autopsy comes up with a new diagnosis that was missed by all of modern medicine’s amazing imaging tests and sophisticated laboratory procedures.

So why, ask two experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, should we think that the imaging-based virtual autopsy, or “virtopsy,” is ready to replace the traditional direct physical inspection … read more »

The University of Missouri Department of Radiology appears to be under investigation.

The Columbia Daily Tribune newspaper of Columbia, Missouri (home of the university), reported Sunday that:
Multiple sources have told the Tribune that radiology employees, including low-level staff members, recently were instructed by the UM System General Counsel’s office not to delete e-mails or destroy documents, indicating an investigation.
The newspaper also … read more »

A CNN report scheduled for tonight accuses most radiologists who take the exam to become board certified of cheating.

A CNN story about the report, posted online earlier today, begins: “For years, doctors around the country taking an exam to become board certified in radiology have cheated by memorizing test questions, creating sophisticated banks of what are known as ‘recalls,’ a … read more »

The recession may have accidentally created an experiment in the effects of market forces on health care costs.

Some have argued for years that health care costs have risen faster than overall inflation because employer- or government-provided health insurance has insulated consumers from the full costs of their health care decisions. Therefore, they don’t bother to be smart shoppers.

Well, in 2010, … read more »

Mayo Clinic is building two new proton beam treatment facilities, one in Minnesota and one in Arizona. They exemplify either “what is wrong with American health care today” or an “investment to ensure that [Mayo's] patients have access to proven, effective, safe treatment for serious illnesses.”

Or maybe both. Or neither.

The “what’s wrong” assessment comes from Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, … read more »

Health insurance companies spent tens of millions of dollars trying to stop the health care reform law, and now the law has turned out to be a financial bonanza for them.

So says a Blooomberg Government study released last week. A Bloomberg news story quoted Peter Gosselin, the study author, as saying:
The industry that was the loudest, most persistent critic of … read more »

What started as a whistleblower complaint by a radiologist has led the federal government to file a $150 million civil lawsuit against an Ypsilanti, Michigan, radiology company, its owners, and a physician.

The suit charges that the company generated at least 90 percent of its business by paying kickbacks to doctors for referrals and that unnecessary imaging tests put some patients … read more »