Dear AuntMinnie Member,
What keeps you up at night thinking about your radiology practice? A new survey of many of your peers found, unsurprisingly, that reimbursement is perhaps the biggest concern.
The Medical Imaging Confidence Index (MICI) follows a group of radiology administrators who are surveyed over time regarding their confidence on a half-dozen topics, from expectations of procedure volume to access to capital. The MICI survey was developed through a collaboration between AHRA and survey firm the MarkeTech Group.
In the current survey, radiology administrators reported rock-bottom scores when it comes to expected reimbursement from Medicare. They're more optimistic about future access to capital, procedure volume growth, operating and staff costs, and their department's status as a profit center.
To learn more, click here, or visit our Imaging Leaders Digital Community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
Low-dose CT for appendicitis
Meanwhile, in our CT Digital Community, a new study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that radiologists can sharply dial back the radiation dose settings when using CT to diagnose appendicitis.
South Korean researchers used a low-dose CT protocol to scan patients presenting to the emergency room with signs of appendicitis. They then compared the diagnostic accuracy of the technique to results in patients who received full-dose scans.
The group found that they were able to use just one-fourth the dose while maintaining accuracy, as measured by the negative appendectomy rate in both patient populations. Could the protocol work in the U.S. as well? Maybe not -- find out why by clicking here.
In other CT news, a new study by the International Atomic Energy Agency has found significant variations around the world regarding when CT is used for scanning pediatric patients.
Many sites are not using appropriateness criteria before deciding whether a scan is warranted, the researchers found, and there was a wide variation between geographic regions in terms of pediatric CT studies as a percentage of overall imaging scans.
Get more information by clicking here, or visit our CT Digital Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
