A new "R3 Report" from the Joint Commission (JC) offers hospitals information on ways to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in hospitals.

Hypofractionation regimens of radiation therapy, which deliver higher doses of radiation per day, but in fewer days, are as effective in decreasing intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer from returning as conventional radiation therapy at five years post-treatment, according to a randomized trial to be presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in Miami, Oct. 2-6.

Boston Scientific's subsidiary Guidant is on the hook for $9.25 million because it inflated the cost of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators sold to hospitals and reneged on credits owed the Department of Veterans Affairs for replacement of units still under warranty.

Calypso Medical Technologies has announced that the FDA granted Investigational Device Exemption approval for its international clinical study evaluation of real-time tracking of lung cancer tumors during radiation delivery.

Enterprise software vendors in the homecare segment have a long way to go before they are consistently helping their clients achieve interoperability and share data with hospitalsand, thus, meet Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements. That's according to a recent KLAS report, Homecare 2011: New Expectations, New Market Energy.

Infinitt North America, a developer of image and information management technologies for healthcare, has received FDA clearance for its fusion software, Xelis Fusion. The software is now available to the North American market.

Citing the effectiveness of public safeguards, David Arkush, director of Public Citizens Congress Watch, advocated for reducing barriers to creating healthcare regulations before Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

With preliminary results linking CT screening with a 20 percent decrease in lung cancer mortality compared with chest x-ray, the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) research team has turned to secondary endpoints of the trial and started to analyze cost data.