Kootenai Imaging in northern Idaho has contracted McKesson Revenue Management Solutions (RMS) for practice management services and to help steer the group toward the adoption of ICD-10.

Health Imaging's Top Connected class of 2011 is an illustrious group. Several previous winners have re-appeared and demonstrated their continued commitment to imaging connectivity across the enterprise, reporting on ongoing gains in various metrics, such as turn-around time and operating costs.

Summer is my favorite time of year. Its a bit like Christmas in July, when a slew of applications arrive (electronically, of course) for Health Imaging's annual Top Connected contest.

Dose reduction initiatives are big priorities these days. In fact, a just-completed survey of Health Imaging & IT readers on strategies to manage CT radiation exposure shows that 95 percent of organizations have implemented a dose reduction initiative in the last 24 months.

Direct communication of imaging results by radiologists to patients has bubbled to the surface in the last few years. Its fueled by patient demands for expediency, healthcare reform and the role of miscommunication in malpractice suits. Proposed, but stalled, legislation in Pennsylvaniathe Patient Test Result Information Actwould have required radiology facilities to send exam results to patients.

Cardio Pulmonary Diagnostic in Newark, N.J., and Hudson County Cardiovascular Care PC in Jersey City, N.J., have purchased McKessons Practice Complete, a cloud-based EHR and practice management system.

After three decades of growth in procedure volume and continued increases in the depth and diversity of applications, three specialty areas for MR technologists have emerged, according to a study published in the July/August issue of Radiologic Technology.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), developed to improve the safety and effectiveness of radiation therapy, requires better quality control and improved patient safety, an objective that requires providers, vendors, manufacturers and medical societies to collaborate on more comprehensive quality assurance guidelines, according to a white paper published in the July issue of Practical Radiation Oncology.