A new federal law took effect Jan. 1 requiring all hospitals to post their list prices online. But, as it turns out, what appears online may end up confusing price-conscious patients more than helping them.

New research has found that significant differences in radiation dose from CT scans is credited to how medical staff uses imaging scanners. However, setting more consistent dose standards through changes in CT protocols is possible, according to a study published online Jan. 2 in The BMJ.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee have found that a smartphone app may serve as an effective and valuable workplace-based education tool to help decrease the amount of incorrectly ordered scans, according to research published Jan. 2 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

A team at the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson is working to create a 15-minute MRI to accommodate patients with conditions ill-suited for traditional imaging times, according to a recent UA news release.

A new federal law proposed by CMS took effect on Jan. 1, requiring hospitals to publish online price lists for medical imaging and all other services they provide, according to a recent report by Newsweek.

Obese patients who undergo x-ray imaging face more than double the risk of cancer from radiation than that of ‘normal-weight’ people, according to a new U.K.-based study published in the Journal of Radiological Protection.

“We knew imaging would come back because there’s virtually nothing in health care that can happen without an image anymore,” Travis Singleton, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Merritt Hawkins, told the American Medical Association (AMA).

The Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA) applauded 12 U.S. governors for writing a letter strongly encouraging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, to permanently repeal the medical device tax before the end of the year.