Dear AuntMinnie.com Member,
The growth of CT screening services has been one of the most exciting trends in medical imaging in the last few years, but the aggressive marketing tactics and profit orientation of some operators has tarnished the niche. While "CT screening" has yet to become one of radiology’s four-letter words, there is an urgent need for standards that will enable CT screening centers to operate both profitably and ethically.
Enter the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance. The SCBT/MR has placed the dilemma of screening for asymptomatic patients at the top of its agenda, and discussed the topic at a special conference this week in Boston. AuntMinnie staff editor Eric Barnes is filing daily reports from the meeting in our CT Digital Community, at http://ct.auntminnie.com.
In one article, Dr. Lincoln Berland of the University of Alabama at Birmingham talks about his experiences in setting up and running a screening center according to ethical principles. A CT screening program involves much more than starting a marketing campaign and watching the patients roll in, he said. CT screening patients require special treatment and follow-up that goes beyond what some imaging professionals are accustomed to.
In another article, Dr. Ella Kazerooni of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor takes on a number of questions regarding CT lung screening. Kazerooni compares lung screening to radiology’s other big screening modality, mammography, and also discusses how new technologies like multislice CT and computer-aided detection (CAD) are affecting the way lung screening is conducted.
Continue to check back in the CT Digital Community for more reports from this important conference.
In other AuntMinnie.com news, you’ve got less than a week left to vote in the final round of The Minnies, AuntMinnie.com’s annual event recognizing excellence in radiology. CT-related candidates are finalists in several events, including Best New Radiology Product, Hottest Clinical Procedure, and Most Significant News Event in Radiology. If you haven’t voted in the final round yet, make sure you do so before our November 17 deadline by going to http://minnies.auntminnie.com.
