Participation in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and the Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program has continued to grow, according to a February report from the agency itself. Combined, both programs paid $662 million in incentives in 2010 across all participation options, a 72 percent increase from 2009.

A study, which breast imaging stakeholders have characterized as underpowered and statistically sloppy, has concluded that 15 to 25 percent of breast cancer cases diagnosed in the Norwegian Screening Program are overdiagnosed, according to research published April 3 in Annals of Internal Medicine. These study results run counter to published data about organized screening programs, which report up to a 40 percent decrease in the death rate among women who participate in screening, Michael N. Linver, MD, director of mammography at X-Ray Associates of New Mexico in Albuquerque, told Health Imaging.

GE Healthcare and Dyax have signed a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of peptides binding to c-Met, which provides upfront, milestone and royalty payments to Dyax. The license includes application of the peptides in PET, SPECT and optical imaging.

Breast cancer patients treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) instead of standard whole breast irradiation (WBI) have a lower incidence of acute or chronic toxicities, according to a study in Practical Radiation Oncology.

Source: whitehouse.govThe Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is requesting public comment on the ethical issues raised by the ready availability of large-scale human genome sequence data, with regard to privacy and data access and the balancing of individual and societal interests.

Rates of death in the U.S. from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2004 and 2008, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published online in Cancer on March 28.

Conventional wisdom and prior findings hold that physician risk intolerance and malpractice fear fuel CT ordering; however, recent research disputes this assertion and suggests variations in head CT use in the emergency department (ED) do not correlate with these factors. The authors cautioned of caveats related to the findings, and emphasized that clinical decision support could improve quality, reduce inappropriate imaging and conserve healthcare resources, in an interview with Health Imaging and research letter published March 26 in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Five Republican lawmakers have joined voices with AdvaMed to reiterate the trade groups call for repeal of the medical device tax embedded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.