Regarding recent articles in the New York Times, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in a statement acknowledged a number of rare but tragic events that occurred in the last decade involving people undergoing radiation therapy.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has posted a notice of final rule in the Jan. 28 Federal Register requiring each state to adopt a system to report certain adverse licensure actions taken against licensed healthcare practitioners to the Secretary of HHS, effective March 1.

The greatest threat to the U.S. budget stability in the coming decade is the growth of federal spending on healthcare, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that spending for Medicare and Medicaid, under current law, is expected to keep growing faster than the economy, reaching 6.6 percent of the gross domestic product by 2020 and potentially reaching 10 percent by 2035.

The Joint Commission has been designated as one of the accreditation bodies of advanced diagnostic imaging centers by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), according to an announcement which appeared in the Federal Register on Jan. 26.

CT colonography, or virtual colonoscopy, is a safe and effective screening modality for the older patient population in the screening of colorectal cancer, according to the findings of a retrospective analysis published in the February Issue of Radiology.

As part of the effort to make the meaningful use proposal process transparent, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the ongoing comments submitted on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health ITs interim final rule and notice of proposed rulemaking on an open-access Web site.

Hospitals rated in the top 5 percent in the U.S. have a 29 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate and are improving their clinical quality at a faster pace than other hospitals, according to a study issued Jan. 26 by HealthGrades, a healthcare ratings organization.

Researchers have found that prostate cancer treatments varied significantly between county hospitals and private providers. Patients treated in county hospitals are more likely to undergo surgery while patients treated in private facilities tend to receive radiation or hormone therapy, based on study findings published online Jan. 25 in Cancer.