Dear AuntMinnie Member,
When radiology scanner sales went south in 2008, one of the hardest-hit segments was PET. As medical imaging's most expensive modality, PET was especially vulnerable to the drastic cutbacks that hospitals made in capital equipment purchasing.
But PET purchasing is on the rebound. A new article in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community reports that PET scanner purchases grew by 22% in 2010. More good news may be on the horizon, with PET sales expected to climb sharply in the years to come, according to the story, which tracks the findings of a market research report by Bio-Tech Systems.
What's expected to drive the growth? New technologies such as PET/MRI and time-of-flight (TOF) imaging will help boost future purchasing, the report states. But the international market may take longer to recover.
Get more details by clicking here, or visit our Molecular Imaging Digital Community at molecular.auntminnie.com.
Do radiologists self-refer?
Meanwhile, a new story in our Imaging Leaders Digital Community addresses the tricky question of whether radiologists self-refer for high-cost imaging studies.
When the topic of rising imaging costs comes up, radiology professionals often point the finger at physicians in other specialties who use imaging in their own offices -- the dreaded "self-referral" accusation. But lately, those physicians have issued a rejoinder: Don't radiologists self-refer when they order recommendations for additional imaging?
A team from Massachusetts General Hospital sought to answer this question by looking at the percentage of high-cost imaging exams that resulted from radiologist recommendations. The group figured that if this share was high, it might be a sign that radiologists were indeed contributing to higher imaging costs.
Find out the answer by clicking here, or visit our Imaging Leaders Digital Community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
