Dear AuntMinnie Member,
PACS-related topics are at the top of the agenda this week on AuntMinnie.com, where we're featuring two new articles in our PACS Digital Community.
In the first story, staff writer Erik L. Ridley reports on how imaging facilities can manage the legal risks that can arise from the conversion to filmless imaging. A number of facilities have found that while PACS has major advantages, it can also create a minefield of potential legal liabilities.
These could include lost images from a hard-drive crash, malpractice risk from the use of lossy-compressed images, and communication failures when radiologic findings aren't properly relayed to the referring physician. Find out how you can manage and mitigate your PACS legal risk by clicking here.
In other news in the community, we're pleased to launch the first installment in a new series of articles designed to help you create better requests for proposal (RFPs) for purchasing PACS networks. Called Building the Best RFP, the ongoing series will cover a multitude of topics related to purchasing PACS. Check out the first installment, from PACS industry consultant Michael Gray, by clicking here.
In other news, a disturbing new study out this week indicates that mammography screening rates in the U.S. have declined in the last several years. The study, published in the journal Cancer, found that the percentage of women 40 and older who said they had a mammogram in the past two years had fallen from 70% in 2000 to 66% in 2005.
The study comes on the heels of recent research indicating that breast cancer rates have been declining in the U.S. -- a development that some pundits have attributed to the role of mammography screening in finding breast cancer at an early stage.
Could complacency be prompting some women to shun their annual mammogram, or are other factors involved? Find out for yourself in our Women's Imaging Digital Community by clicking here.
