St. Jude Medical has received FDA clearance and immediately will launch the Amplatzer Vascular Plug 4 for use in transcatheter embolization procedures within the peripheral vasculature.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has joined the list of major medical associations that have adopted policies that contradict the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations for screening mammography. AMA updated its screening mammography recommendations at its annual policymaking meeting June 19.

When a study published June 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) demonstrated a surge in advanced imaging use within integrated healthcare systems, many headlines focused on how the high utilization was driving healthcare costs and increasing radiation doses received by patients. The medical imaging community, however, was quick to put these results in context.

Diagnostic Labs, a Burbank, Calif.-based clinical laboratory and radiology services company, is facing fraud allegations brought under the False Claims Act, according to a report from California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Intermountain Healthcare, a Utah-based health system that includes 22 nonprofit hospitals, 185 clinics and a medical group with some 900 employed physicians, has been awarded $9.7 million contract as part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Health Care Innovation Awards initiative.

The FDA has approved Siemens Healthcare Somatom Definition Edge single-source CT system for sale in the U.S.

Mevion Medical Systems has received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Mevion S250 Proton Therapy System.

Researchers recommended making chronic kidney disease (CKD) a coronary heart disease risk equivalent after their results showed the risk of MI was similar for CKD and diabetic patients in a study published online June 19 in The Lancet. Writers in an accompanying editorial praised the study despite its falling short on its primary outcome.