Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The next milestone in the debate over Medicare payment for CT lung cancer screening is looming as the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prepares for an April 30 meeting of its Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC).
MEDCAC advises CMS on reimbursement issues, and a vote of confidence by the committee would be a major step toward population-based CT screening in the U.S. of current and former heavy smokers.
But there are ominous signs that it won't all be smooth sailing for proponents of CT screening. The MEDCAC panel will be chaired by cardiologist Dr. Rita Redberg, who raised the ire of radiologists in January with a controversial op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled "We are giving ourselves cancer" that linked CT radiation dose to patient deaths.
And in a 2011 Newsweek article, Dr. Redberg revealed that she had no intention of ever receiving a screening mammogram, even though she is over 50 -- well within even the conservative 2009 breast screening guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. "There are many areas of medicine where not testing, not imaging, and not treating actually result in better health outcomes," she told Newsweek.
CMS has given the MEDCAC panel three questions to debate, primarily related to whether the benefits of CT lung screening outweigh its harms among Medicare patients. Given Dr. Redberg's history, you can bet that radiation dose will figure prominently in the discussion. Read more by clicking here, or visit our CT Digital Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
While you're there, make sure to check out an article on research conducted by a German group on a novel ambulance outfitted with a mobile CT scanner. The group found that the ambulance helped clinicians deliver faster care to stroke victims by making diagnoses on the scene, which led to an earlier start for thrombolysis therapy. Check out the article by clicking here.
Siegel on CAD
In other news, one of radiology's most influential thought leaders, Dr. Eliot Siegel, ponders the future of computer-aided detection (CAD) in an article in our Advanced Visualization Digital Community.
Dr. Siegel spoke with AuntMinnie.com senior editor Erik L. Ridley on CAD's potential, in particular how the technology needs to evolve in order to spread beyond mammography, the discipline to which it's largely been limited.
He believes that CAD has a bright future if it transitions from a static application that marks abnormalities and into a more flexible tool that interacts with users, performing functions such as gathering supplemental information that radiologists can then use as they interpret cases.
Read more by clicking here, or visit the community at av.auntminnie.com.
PET's bright future
Finally, visit our Molecular Imaging Digital Community for an article by features editor Wayne Forrest on a new report that predicts that PET has a bright future, thanks to new indications in oncology and neurology.
Market research firm Bio-Tech Systems predicts that the PET industry will grow from about $700 million in global scanner sales today to over $1.4 billion by 2021 as new radiopharmaceuticals make the modality more useful for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
Read more by clicking here, or visit the community at molecular.auntminnie.com.
