Radiologist instrumental in passage of new Centennial State law

Earlier this month Colorado became the 30th state to mandate that women with dense breast tissue get told about it when they receive results from their mammograms. This week an area newspaper spotlighted a radiologist who helped push the legislation through.

Taj Kattapuram, MD, who serves as legislative chair for the Colorado Radiological Society, tells the Longmont-based Times-Call she was initially skeptical about the bill because density information was already available to breast-imaging patients through their medical records.

“I thought, well, patients can already access their mammography report. They simply have to call the office of medical records and ask for it,” Kattapuram says in the article. “But what is great about this breast density bill is that it is championed by patient groups and not physicians or hospital groups. … When [it] was explained to me why they want it, I was fully supportive.”

Read the whole thing:

Dave Pearson

Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.

Around the web

RBMA President Peter Moffatt discusses declining reimbursement rates, recruiting challenges and the role of artificial intelligence in transforming the industry.

Deepak Bhatt, MD, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and principal investigator of the TRANSFORM trial, explains an emerging technique for cardiac screening: combining coronary CT angiography with artificial intelligence for plaque analysis to create an approach similar to mammography.

A total of 16 cardiology practices from 12 states settled with the DOJ to resolve allegations they overbilled Medicare for imaging agents used to diagnose cardiovascular disease.