Dear AuntMinnie Member,
It's been a busy week for many radiology professionals, with the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna winding down just as the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) fires up.
First, let's recap ECR. The show closed on Sunday as a cold front continued to grip Vienna and froze the mighty Danube River. It was enough to send many ECR attendees out to have their pictures taken walking on its icy surface.
Fortunately, the clinical content being presented inside the Austria Center Vienna was as hot as always. For example, Italian researchers presented their work on a breast MRI protocol that they believe is more accurate than what's currently being used. And breast MRI expert Dr. Christiane Kuhl asserted that the principles of evidence-based medicine have been "misused" in the case of preoperative breast MRI.
Some neuroradiologists are still feeling uncomfortable about using advanced imaging, structural reports, and visual rating scales to diagnose dementia, according to a Saturday presentation. And augmented reality could be useful for guiding facet joint injections, according to another Saturday talk by a Swiss group.
Extremity PET/CT scans may not be necessary for melanoma patients, while artificial intelligence could help distinguish lung nodules on CT scans.
And don't forget about our videos from the meeting, in which AuntMinnieEurope.com Editor-in-Chief Philip Ward interviews luminaries in European radiology about important topics facing the specialty. Click on the links below, or visit the RADCast gallery by clicking here.
It was our pleasure bringing you coverage of ECR 2018 -- just go to radcast.auntminnie.com for all the news from the show.
It would be hard to find a city more different from Vienna than Las Vegas, but HIMSS did just that in selecting the location for its 2018 conference. The meeting fired up on Monday -- are you lucky enough to be attending both ECR and HIMSS? Drop me a note by clicking on the link below my picture.
MPPR rollbacks
Radiology could be getting back up to $64 million in Medicare payments based on the rollback of reimbursement cuts under the multiple procedure payment reduction (MPPR) initiative. Learn more by clicking here.
CTC vs. colonoscopy
Finally, a new study addresses the question of which is the better tool for colon cancer screening: CT colonography (CTC) or conventional colonoscopy. Click here for more.
