Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Tuesday's election of Republican Scott Brown to a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts has thrown a monkey wrench into the Democratic Party's plans to finalize passage of a healthcare reform bill.
With President Barack Obama losing his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Democrats are examining their options for getting the controversial legislation pushed through, according to an article in our Imaging Center Digital Community.
The outcome is of keen interest to radiology professionals: both the House of Representatives and the Senate versions of the reform legislation contain a number of provisions that would affect reimbursement for advanced imaging procedures. What's more, many industry experts believe that the current slowdown in capital equipment purchasing is due in large measure to uncertainty among healthcare providers over the outcome of the healthcare reform debate.
Tuesday's election may have delivered a message to Washington, DC, but it only sends mixed signals to an imaging industry waiting for clarity. Stay tuned in our Imaging Center Digital Community at centers.auntminnie.com for the latest developments in this ongoing saga.
Are PDAs good enough for ER images?
In other news, we're featuring a new study in our PACS Digital Community on whether handheld computers such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and iPods can be used to view reference-quality images for emergency consultations.
A group led by Irish researchers compared wrist radiographs and brain CT images viewed on a PDA and an iPod to images viewed on off-the-shelf reference monitors. The findings indicate that handheld computers may have an important clinical role to play in medical imaging.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit the PACS Digital Community at pacs.auntminnie.com.
