Although major components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) do not go into effect until 2014, the fate of PPACA depends on the outcomes of four key events this year, according to a perspective paper published online Jan. 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

CEOs are using federal and market reform as a catalyst to work through what remains to fix 99 percent of the dumb stuff weve done, according to a report from consulting group Huron Healthcare.

Although 44.4 million adults make it a point to receive periodic health examinations each year, many of them may not be receiving the recommended screening tests and counseling services that could benefit their health, according to a study published January in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Archimedes, a healthcare modeling company, and MyHealth Access Network, a beacon community in Oklahoma, announced the planned deployment of Archimedes Individualized Guidelines and Outcomes (IndiGO) platform, a physician and patient decision support tool.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston has added Agfa HealthCares Impax Data Center and also intends to upgrade to Impax PACS version 6.5 as the hospital expands its relationship with the Mortsel, Belgium-based healthcare IT vendor.

Patients want doctors to be highly trained and skilled with the technology that has led to so many health improvements in this century. Patients also need doctors to notice their emotions, and recognize that what is routine, typical and straightforward to doctors, almost never is to patients.

The Health Care Compliance Association, a nonprofit trade association for healthcare compliance professionals, determined that hospital audits conducted through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Recovery Audit Contractor program are usually handled by compliance departments and that they generally take a single full-time employee to manage.

Female radiologists, particularly those in leadership roles, remain relatively rare, particularly compared with other specialties. A quarterly Masters of Radiology Panel Discussion published in the January issue of American Journal of Roentgenology surveyed leaders about strategies to encourage more women to enter the radiology field and pursue leadership roles. The answers were varied and identified the lack of a quick fix.