Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Radiologists are used to diagnosing cancer in other people, but their own diagnosis can still come as a shock. That was the situation faced by Dr. Wendie Berg, PhD, a noted breast radiologist who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
Fortunately, Dr. Berg's cancer was found relatively early and she is doing well. But her story offers a cautionary tale for many women today: She had received a normal mammogram, but then decided to get a breast MRI scan due to dense breast tissue and an elevated risk for breast cancer.
Her personal experience has spurred her to action, creating a new website called DenseBreast-info.org that's designed to educate both patients and providers about the problems that dense breast tissue creates for conventional mammography. She also has new insight into the radiologist-patient relationship. Learn more about her story by clicking here.
Reducing CT dose
In other news, we're highlighting a study presented this week at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) meeting in Toronto on how University of California (UC) researchers standardized CT radiation dose across five hospitals in a massive healthcare system.
Their work was based on the realization that different UC hospitals were scanning patients with CT radiation dose levels that in some cases varied wildly -- for example, one facility was using nearly twice the dose for the same exam as the hospital with the lowest level.
The researchers were able to standardize and reduce dose throughout the system using a revolutionary new approach: communication. Simply getting personnel from the different hospitals together to share scanning protocols made a huge difference in enabling each site to adopt best practices for reducing dose.
Read more about how they did it by clicking here, or visit the CT Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
Getting a buzz at HIMSS
Finally, we wrap up our coverage of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting with a review of the conference by the inimitable PACSman, Michael J. Cannavo. Mike reported strong attendance from PACS vendors at this year's meeting, but he was baffled by the preponderance of buzzwords such as "interoperability" and what it really means to be a vendor-neutral archive. Check out his overview -- as well as the HIMSS 2015 edition of the PACSman Awards -- by clicking here.
