Dear AuntMinnie Member,
This week in our PACS Digital Community, the PACS industry's resident gadfly, Michael J. Cannavo, tackles the tricky topic of meaningful use and radiology.
The medical imaging community initially was enthusiastic about the U.S. government's plan for promoting the adoption of healthcare IT through stimulus funding. But as the government has begun releasing its criteria for demonstrating meaningful use of HIT (a condition for stimulus payments), a feeling has emerged that radiology might be getting left out.
Mr. Cannavo explores this dynamic in an article in our Building a Better PACS series that you can read by clicking here. When you're done, let us know what you think in our PACS Forum.
In other PACS news, senior editor Erik L. Ridley describes a new initiative to improve the performance and reliability of PACS via the Medical Imaging Network Transport (MINT) protocol. A group of academic researchers and vendor representatives is looking to MINT to improve upon DICOM-based methods for communicating and storing image objects.
By making use of Web technologies, MINT could make life easier in a variety of ways, from decreasing image transmission times to eliminating the need for archive migration when an imaging facility changes PACS vendors. Learn more about MINT by clicking here, or visit our PACS Digital Community at pacs.auntminnie.com.
MRI market looks healthy
In other news, the MRI segment is sometimes seen as the canary in the coal mine for those assessing the health of the radiology industry -- it is usually the first modality to see a sales decline in times of economic trouble, and it typically dips the furthest.
But there is good news out this week on the near-term future of the market. A new market research report indicates that many imaging facilities plan to buy new MRI scanners in the next year, particularly sites that deferred replacing equipment during the Great Recession.
The report is a sign that the MRI segment may be able to pull out of the economic doldrums of the past few years without permanent damage. What's more, MRI procedure volume remains solid, despite recent cuts in reimbursement.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit the MRI Digital Community at mri.auntminnie.com.
