The U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J. has ruled that GE Healthcare and its predecessor companies, including Amersham, engaged in a false and misleading advertising with a promotional campaign claiming that its x-ray contrast agent Visipaque was superior to Bracco's x-ray contrast agent Isovue.

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Radiology Technical Committee has released new supplements to the IHE Radiology Technical Framework, which define specific implementations of established standards to achieve effective systems integration and facilitate appropriate sharing of medical information.

Stereotaxis has reached an agreement with Relational Technology Solutions that will allow the company to offer its hospital customers an alternative financing arrangement for its purchase of Stereotaxis Niobe magnetic robotic systems.

TeraRecon, a developer of advanced visualization solutions, released the next generation of its Aquarius iNtuition application, Version 4.4, at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) this week in Vienna, Austria.

Clinical studies are demonstrating the utility of cardiac CT as an essential imaging modalitywith studies showing the non-invasive study yields results comparable to invasive coronary angiograms. Other supporting data are beginning to emerge, too, hinting that cardiac CT saves time and money throughout the health system. On the downside, reimbursement remains a local decision, and in most places, current rates dont leave much room for profit.

For cardiology PACS, the explosion of cardiac-related advances across imaging modalities has created demand for expanded capabilities beyond simple image storage and distribution, providing physicians with access to patient-specific information related to images and reports within the facility or externally. Meanwhile, with this increased volume of image data, cardiologists also need to have access to more extensive patient data, such as hemodynamic monitoring, EKG and electronic medical record (EMR) information to create structured reports.

Since the FDA placed a black-box warning on echocardiography contrast agents in October 2007, the market for the agents dropped tremendously. But there is good news for the echo contrast agent market and patients as the pendulum is swinging back again. The subsequent movement to educate both regulators and providers has led to a modification of the agencys contraindications and may have generated a resurgence in their usealong with a better understanding of their clinical value.

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