Dear AuntMinnie Member,
A new survey has found that a large percentage of U.S. doctors report feeling signs of burnout -- and the burnout rate among radiologists is higher than the average for all physicians.
The survey by Medscape found that 42% of U.S. physicians said they had experienced burnout. Among radiologists, that number was 45%, landing imagers in the top 10 of all medical specialties.
What are the causes of burnout among doctors? You might not be surprised to find that over half of survey respondents reported that dealing with too many bureaucratic tasks was a major factor. Learn more about the results by clicking here.
Mammo rates rise under ACA
In other news, a new study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that mammography screening rates rose after patient co-payments were banned under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Researchers tracked screening rates under two types of health plans: One group had out-of-pocket co-payments before the ACA, which were then eliminated when the ACA was passed, while a control group never had patient cost sharing. They found that screening rates went up more than five percentage points in the group for whom co-payments were eliminated, while they were mostly unchanged in the control group.
While the findings are good news in the short term, the progress could easily be reversed if efforts to undermine the ACA continue. Learn more by clicking here.
In other news in our Women's Imaging Community, researchers from the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix addressed the issue of how often breast cancer survivors should be followed up after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Read about their findings by clicking here, or visit the community at women.auntminnie.com.
Oral contrast and CT
Finally, visit our CT Community for a new article on whether oral contrast is really needed for CT scans of children suspected of having appendicitis. Researchers from Michigan looked at whether oral contrast was necessary or if intravenous contrast alone was sufficient. Find out what they discovered by clicking here, or visit the community at ct.auntminnie.com.
