Medical Imaging

Physicians utilize medical imaging to see inside the body to diagnose and treat patients. This includes computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, angiography,  and the nuclear imaging modalities of PET and SPECT. 

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PQRS: Play Now or Pay Later

Human nature being what it is, physician participation in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) will likely accelerate as the agency phases incentives out and penalties in. The effect may prove especially conspicuous since the bonuses have been voluntary and modest. By contrast, the forfeitures will be automatic and, if paired with other pay-for-performance requirements, impossible to ignore.

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The Year in Images 2013

Each year, a few images emerge from the masses as the most striking portraits of the newest molecular imaging research.

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Tau Imaging Takes the Stage

Tao is making headlines. The journal Neuron recently published a clinical study heralding a viable tau PET agent. Co-author Makoto Higuchi from the Molecular Imaging Center of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan, provided us with an exclusive look into this game-changer that will no doubt inform new formulas for dementia imaging.

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Fingerprinting Cancer: How Radiomics and Genomics Are Mapping Tumor Heterogeneity Using ‘Big Data’ to Track Killer Habitats

Cancer is often characterized as a serial murderer that needs to be struck down with brute force. But what researchers are slowly coming to understand is that this idea might actually make individual cancers stronger.

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Imaging Addiction: Could PET & MR End Cocaine Abuse?

Cocaine addiction can ruin a person physically and financially, and with an estimated 1.4 million cocaine users in the U.S., thousands will become trapped by their habit. While previous research on the drug and its addictive potential were observational and subjective, imaging is reshaping how we see addiction—and how it will be treated.

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Amyloid Imaging: Now Covered By CMS, With Major Caveats

On the heels of the final decision from CMS regarding coverage for amyloid imaging in late September, Molecular Imaging Insight talked with amyloid PET imaging expert Peter Herscovitch, MD, SNMMI 2013-2014 president elect in an exclusive interview to discuss the potential impact of the new climate of coverage in the near to distant future. The CMS coverage decision now allots one amyloid PET scan per patient in approved clinical trials, but it is not yet clear how these studies will proceed. He offers some key points of conversation for stakeholders in dementia imaging.

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Perspectives on Promising Research: What's Next?

There are the workhorses and the newcomers in the world of molecular imaging and biomarkers. What technologies and biomarkers are getting close to entering regular clinical practice? Which ones have a ways to go? Four experts offer thier opinions and rationale.

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The Impact of the Ge-68/Ga-68 on Molecular Imaging

For more than 50 years, speculation has swirled about the tremendous potential of Ga-68 PET imaging to transform molecular imaging. The rapidly increasing number of publications reporting the results of Ga-68 PET imaging studies are evidence that many are working in this direction. 

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.