Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Backers of CT lung cancer screening aren't going down without a fight in the wake of last week's stunning vote against the exam by a Medicare advisory panel.
One of screening's most ardent proponents, Dr. Frederic W. Grannis Jr., was at the April 30 meeting of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC). While he was initially optimistic that the panel would recommend Medicare coverage for screening, that optimism turned to despair as the day wore on.
Calling the proceedings an "appalling travesty of the scientific process," Dr. Grannis believes the MEDCAC panel was packed with members who worked for healthcare payors and who didn't have hands-on experience in either medical imaging or caring for people with lung cancer.
Evidence in favor of CT lung cancer screening was either ignored or glossed over, while panelists were allowed to make inaccurate statements about screening without correction, Dr. Grannis believes.
Read more about his thoughts by clicking here, or visit our CT Digital Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
While you're there, check out a pair of articles on CT colonography (CTC) from this week's American Roentgen Ray Society meeting in San Diego. In one study, radiologists actually said they would prefer optical colonoscopy for themselves rather than CTC, and in a second study, researchers found that even though extracolonic findings on CTC were rare, they were often significant.
New brain MRI software
In other news, Canadian researchers have developed automated software that aims to make it easier to analyze follow-up MRI scans.
The algorithm detects subtle and disease-related changes on images, while trying to reduce the amount of data being presented to radiologists to avoid information overload. The software also attempts to display changes in a way that matches the functions of the human eye.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Advanced Visualization Digital Community at av.auntminnie.com.
