Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The virtual colonoscopy community suffered a major defeat in 2009 when a bid for Medicare reimbursement was denied. Two years later, however, the payment picture is slowly improving throughout the U.S.
So concludes a presentation by Dr. Abraham Dachman, a University of Chicago VC expert who spoke on the topic at last week's Abdominal Radiology Course, sponsored by the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists (SGR), in Carlsbad, CA. We're featuring an article on his talk in our Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community.
Dr. Dachman explains how acceptance of virtual colonoscopy is growing, especially in symptomatic patients, and many states and private payors will reimburse for VC for certain applications. He describes the benefits of VC over traditional optical colonoscopy in an article you can read by clicking here.
Also in the community, check out our coverage of a study that compared a PET/CT technique with a laxative-augmented contrast medium to the use of PET alone. These articles and more are available in the Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community, at vc.auntminnie.com.
Allaying fears about airport scanners
It's hard to know which radiation panic has been worse in recent weeks, the fears in North America over radioactive fallout from Japan, or the hysteria over radiation from airport backscatter x-ray scanners. This week, a new study about the latter appears as though it might just allow folks to take a deep breath and relax.
Research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicates that the amount of radiation emitted by the scanners is equivalent to about nine minutes of flying time.
The risk is so small, in fact, that frequent flyers who are that worried about radiation should consider not flying at all, due to the amount of exposure generated by the flights themselves, the researchers recommend. Learn more by clicking here, or visit the Digital X-Ray Community at xray.auntminnie.com.
