Dear AuntMinnie Member,
You get what you pay for. At least, that's what some radiation oncologists may be hoping, as newly released data show that the U.S. Medicare program is paying far more for cancer treatment than it was 10 years ago.
The culprit is believed to be new, more sophisticated technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which are causing Medicare costs to rise faster than growth in procedure volume, according to researchers from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
The upward trend could be mitigated by other technologies such as hypofractionated treatment, which has the potential to reduce both the number of treatments and their overall cost. Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Radiation Oncology Digital Community at radiation.auntminnie.com.
CAD helps chest x-ray, breast MRI
In other news, we're featuring a pair of articles on the utility of computer-aided detection (CAD) software in assisting radiologists' reading of medical images.
In the first study, researchers from China used CAD software to improve the performance of digital radiography in a lung cancer screening program. Learn more by clicking here.
In the second study, a team from the University of Chicago evaluated a CAD algorithm to see whether it helped radiologists who were interpreting breast MRI studies. The group found that CAD did indeed contribute to a modest but statistically significant improvement in sensitivity. Get the rest of the story by clicking here, or visit our Advanced Visualization Digital Community at av.auntminnie.com.
