Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Just when you think the debate over breast screening can't get any hotter, someone turns it up a notch. This week, cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol penned an opinion column in Medscape in which he called for an end to mammography screening as it's currently practiced worldwide.
Not surprising, Dr. Daniel Kopans has some choice words in response, which he has shared with us in a Second Opinion article in our Women's Imaging Community.
Dr. Kopans believes that Dr. Topol's column repeatedly misstates the facts about breast screening and makes a number of assumptions that are not based on scientific evidence. The column downplays mammography's demonstrated benefit in saving lives, and implementing its recommendations would hark back to the days before breast screening, when tens of thousands of women died of breast cancer unnecessarily each year.
Read more by clicking here, or visit the community at women.auntminnie.com.
Calming kids before MRIs
In other news, we're highlighting a new study in our MRI Community in which researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital were able to reduce the use of anesthesia before MRI by requiring kids to undergo child life counseling before procedures.
Johns Hopkins had offered pediatric counseling prior to the study, but it was by referral only. Making the counseling mandatory significantly reduced the use of anesthesia, they found. Find out how they did it by clicking here.
While you're in the community, check out this article on how prices for knee MRI scans can vary across the U.S. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, found an eightfold variance in prices, with less populated areas being the most expensive.
