At RSNA 2011, the latest and greatest in radiology engaged nearly 60,000 imaging and informatics stakeholders.

The FDA has approved the American College of Radiology (ACR) to accredit the Planmed Nuance and Nuance Excel full field digital mammography (FFDM) systems beginning Dec. 27.

As 2011 comes to a close, no amount of champagne can make one forget about the years most talked about topichealthcare reform. While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has received considerable flak, many hospital administrators would agree that surgeons are not the only ones who must hold the knife this year. Now, more than ever, hospital administrators will need to slash healthcare costs while still providing the utmost care to patients.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule Dec. 13 that will increase public awareness of financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and certain healthcare providers. This is a provision under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Protocols are the key to dose reduction best practices, and providers reported that they are working with radiologists, physicists and technologists to rework protocols for procedure type and specifying protocols for patient height and weight, according to this years KLAS CT report, CT 2011: Focused on Dose.

Molecular Imaging, a contract research organization (CRO) providing multi-modality preclinical in vivo imaging services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, has entered into a licensing agreement with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to access a number of luciferase-enabled cancer cell lines developed at Dana-Farber.

Four experts attempted to set straight the record on accelerated partial breast brachytherapy (APBI) after a Dec. 7 presentation by MD Anderson researchers at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which concluded that APBI is associated with inferior effectiveness and increased toxicity compared with whole breast irradiation in older women. The researchers outlined numerous flaws ranging from the data source to study design to omitted information, during a teleconference on Dec. 13.

The International Contrast Ultrasound Society (ICUS) threw its support behind a proposed FDA label change that would affect the use of Optison, an ultrasound contrast agent marketed by GE Healthcare for use in contrast-enhanced ultrasound procedures.