RALEIGH, N.C. – Sen. Stan Bingham and Sen. Wesley Meredith have introduced a bill in the North Carolina legislature that will require individuals to secure a license before performing medical imaging and radiation therapy procedures.

As the radiology job market tightens, established radiologists can choose to either protect their own incomes, or support the specialty as a whole by filling positions with young graduates and expanding the duties of a radiologist in general beyond interpretation, according to an article published in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

The stereotype of a medical spouse languishing while his or her partner toils away at the office may be exaggerated, according to results of a national survey published in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. However, younger physicians’ interest in lifestyle specialties and work-life balance coupled with decreasing worker hours among older physicians may have serious workforce consequences.

True confessions: March Madness has passed me by this year. After all, my alma mater, UConn, is out; and I’m a fair weather fan at best. Yet, like millions of viewers across the country I was glued to the screen March 31 as University of Louisville player Kevin Ware went down during the game and was carried out on a back board.

It’s time for radiology to collectively exit the volume bandwagon and get on board with value-based imaging, according to a 10th anniversary musing published online March 25 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Radiologic Associates of Gardiner, N.Y., faces a $2.1 million tab after the group's failure to communicate findings of a spinal lesion on a CT scan to a patient resulted in permanent loss of sensation to the patient's legs. The plaintiff’s lawyers partially credited the verdict to their use of iPads to project CT and PET images onto a display in the court room.

An unintended, and potentially harmful, consequence of the 16-hour shift limit for first-year residents is an increase in self-reported medical errors, according to a study published online March 25 in JAMA Internal Medicine. In contrast to the patient safety issue, the requirement had nonsignificant impacts on hours slept, depressive symptoms and well-being scores.

Outpatient MRIs of the lumbar spine and of the head for headache are often targeted as indications where appropriateness should be more closely scrutinized, and an analysis of usage at two Canadian hospitals has shown that, in the case of lumbar spine MRI at least, this skepticism is warranted.