As a broad concept, good consumer value isn’t hard to get a handle on. Varying definitions abound, to be sure, but the phrase is widely understood as shorthand for the best you can get for the least you have to spend without sacrificing too much on quality within a given product or service category.

Just as factory workers become more diligent when they know they’re being watched, so too radiologists increase their work relative value units (wRVUs) after their practice implements a real-time productivity monitoring system (RTPMS).

New research is revealing the level at which radiation exposure received during CT scanning damages DNA.

At least 14 of the 30 states that took up the Affordable Care Act’s offer of federal aid to expand Medicaid are now fretting that they will have to make wrenching budgetary choices in two years, when the dollars from Washington start to diminish. 

The Affordable Care Act mandated that health insurers pick up the full tab for a number of evidence-based, preventive-care procedures. But for two of the top-targeted procedures, mammography and colonoscopy, patients haven’t exactly rushed doctors’ offices to take advantage of the free screening opportunities. 

A study in New Jersey, one of a growing number of states to mandate that insurers pay for sonograms of breasts deemed dense in screening mammography exams, may provide additional ammo to detractors who warn that such legislation is misplaced and unproductive. 

The Academy of Radiology Research is pleased to support H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, and urges the House of Representatives to pass this important legislation.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the latest Pixar animated film “Inside Out.” It got me thinking about some of the issues in radiology, and not just because the film offers a glimpse, literally, inside the mind of its main character.