Mammograms For Boxers; Meditation Therapy

A new iron-based MRI contrast agent offers not only the benefit of safety but also a better means of differentiating  between benign and malignant tumors.

University of Pennsylvania engineers coated iron oxide nanoparticles with glycol chitosan, a sugar-based polymer that reacts to acids. The sugar keeps the particles from binding or being absorbed by the body, but this particular formulation allows … read more »

Sometime probably in late June, and then again on November 6, radiologists will learn how they need to start preparing for January 1, 2014.

In late June, the Supreme Court is expected to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as universal health care, health care reform (by proponents), or Obamacare … read more »

Researchers at Johns Hopkins In-Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center in Baltimore have begun a breathtaking five-year initiative to detect and treat breast, prostate, and other common cancers at their very earliest stages—when they’re hiding inside cells.

More than $8 million in grants from the National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health) are fueling the initiative. It builds … read more »

Medicare paid $12.8 million in questionable reimbursements and $6.6 million in flatly incorrect reimbursements to portable X-ray suppliers in 2009, according to a study by inspector general of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The study, released this week, covered providers who travel to nursing facilities, private homes, and other nonclinical locations to provide X-rays of the extremities, pelvis, … read more »

The fantasy: A primary-care doctor pulls out her iPad, pulls up a patient’s scans, and huddles with a radiologist, discussing the diagnosis. At the patient’s bedside, she uses the images to help the patient understand his situation. She plugs in an ultrasound probe and checks his heart functioning, sending an image back to the radiologist for a read. She enters … read more »

The families of one in five Americans had trouble paying medical bills in 2010, according to new research released this month. The good news: that percentage didn’t significantly increase between 2007 and 2010.

The numbers come from a report by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan organization founded in 1995 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Although the percentage … read more »

Millimeter-wave scanners may constitute the hot new imaging modality, at least for industrial uses. German scientists have developed a scanner the size of a laser printer that can image all nonmetallic materials so precisely that it can distinguish between different types of rubber composites or chocolate fillings.

The device even has a cuddly name: SAMMI, short for Stand Alone MilliMeter wave … read more »