Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that reduces the 2006 fiscal budget for the HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Information Technology that is less than President Bush had requested.

Radianse CTO Mike Dempsey has written an open letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), addressed to Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford, regarding the issue of bar coding medical devices.

Imaging Dynamics Company Ltd. has announced the launch of a new line of CCD digital x-ray detectors.

Rogan-Delft has announced the release of its Online XS PACS based on next-generation redundant array of inexpensive servers (RAIS) technology.

According to a panel report issued this week by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the FDA does not possess a satisfactory system for tracking safety standards for medical devices for both adults and children.

AMIRSYS has introduced the STATdx, a point-of-care, clinical decision support system.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is taking on the issue of creating standards for new EHR systems so that patient medical records meet the requirements of a legal record, according to a release.

A new brachytherapy planning tool from Varian Medical Systems enables clinics to streamline prostate cancer treatments and increase patient comfort.