PET scan with F-18 moves closer to FDA approval of Alzheimer’s diagnostic test

By Michael O'Leary:
The presence of beta-amyloid plaques shown on PET brain scans using the imaging agent florbetapir correlated with autopsy confirmed Alzheimer’s disease 96 percent of the time, a study appearing in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows.
Led by Dr. Christopher Clark of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, the study moves the Philadelphia company a step closer to approval for a diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s, which currently often isn’t confirmed in patients until after death.

In early stages of Alzheimer's distribution of beta-amyloid plaques is low, causing mild symptoms of memory loss and reduced brain function. (Illustration courtesy of National Institute on Aging)

According to background information in the study, diagnosing Alzheimer’s as distinct from other forms of cognitive decline is imprecise at best. Between 10 percent and 20 percent of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are found not to have had the disease following autopsy exam of brain tissues. Another 33 percent of patients with mild signs and symptoms are found to have had undiagnosed Alzheimer’s following autopsy.
“Both diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease are hampered by the lack of noninvasive biomarkers of the underlying pathology,” the authors wrote. “The ability to identify and quantify brain beta-amyloid could increase the accuracy of a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease."

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PET scan with F-18 moves closer to FDA approval of Alzheimer’s diagnostic test

New Mexico Software Launches Full-Function iPad App for its PACS system

By Michael O’Leary
It is not often a company executive has the chance to conduct a real-life test of his company’s products, but New Mexico Software CEO Richard Govatski did just that over this past holiday season. Having slipped getting into his hot tub he twisted his knee, and of course being the holiday, found himself at an urgent care clinic in Albuquerque testing the company’s new iPad app for its PACS.

The XR-EXpress iPad app allows full-function access to New Mexico Software's PACS system.

“The doctor took X-rays of my knee, sent them to XR-EXpress, where they were read by a physician in Los Angeles who then sent the report back to the XR-EXpress,” Govatski told The Hub. “The attending physician then accessed the images and radiologist’s report from his iPad and was able to show me a knee spur that could be causing the pain, and suggested I have an MRI to see if there was any soft-tissue damage.”
It is a scenario that Govatski thinks will become more and more common as the explosion of tablet devices announced at the recent Consumer Electronics Show accelerates the convergence of Internet and mobile computing.

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New Mexico Software Launches Full-Function iPad App for its PACS system

Display Requirements for Radiology and Use of Commercial Grade Monitors

It is not uncommon for me to walk into an ER or ICU and find physicians using a commercial grade monitor that is obviously not calibrated and does not have the required contrast range needed to make a proper diagnosis. This is a major potential liability and could impact patient wellness if critical decisions are made based on viewing images of hairline fractures or a potential pneumo-thorax on these monitors.
This is not to say that one ought not use commercial grade monitors for clinical review, rather, if used for diagnostic purposes, one needs to make sure that they are properly calibrated and meet the requirements for diagnostic viewing. The question is, what are these requirements?
There are actually two sets of guidelines, one from the American College of Radiology (ACR) and one from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). Unfortunately, each group’s guidelines are slightly different, hard to interpret, and leave out some basic requirements such as stability and the capability for calibration and the requirement for accessing the calibration information. The latter is critical from a liability perspective.
As an example of the latter, I recently talked with a PACS administrator who was required to show the calibration records of a particular monitor that was used three years ago for a diagnosis that was later questioned in court. He had to prove that the monitor was within calibration at that time. Another example where the access to calibration data might be important is when the reading is done at a remote site, which does not have a person responsible for the image quality and integrity, so that the proper calibration can be verified and managed remotely.

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Display Requirements for Radiology and Use of Commercial Grade Monitors

Imaging Advances And Proper Displays Are Needed For Accuracy

By Michael O'Leary:
At the center of the continuing controversy over mammograms is the potential that too frequent screening will produce too many unneeded biopsies and surgeries. As with all imaging technologies, however, mammography technology continues to advance. This issue of the Health Imaging Hub newsletter carries two stories about research advances that continue to improve the value of imaging tools for clinical practice.
The report, “Density of Mammographic Masses are a Significant Predictor of Cancer”on a research study that shows that the long suspected, but often-underutilized descriptor of suspicious lumps, may be more useful than thought. Dr. Ryan Woods and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin found that of 118 malignant lesions biopsied, 70.2 percent were high-density masses compared to 22.3 percent of the isodense or low-density masses. While it is an incremental advance, Woods points out that,  “We know that mammograms are the best screening tool we have for finding cancer early, so anything we can do to improve diagnostic accuracy is useful.”
At the same time, in the article, “Advance Makes Real-time Imaging of Cellular Processes Possible” an imaging advance that may some day allow doctors to see disease processes in real time promises to improve treatments as doctors will be able to see at the cellular level whether treatments are working, or even necessary as immune cells mount a response to injury or disease.
Reporting in the journal Nature Methods, a research team led by Dr. Max Krummel, associate professor of Pathology at UCSF, has developed a new imaging technique that allows researchers to observe cellular interactions in real time without disrupting normal function. In their study they showed a series of events in an immune response to lung injury in mice. The advance overcomes the problem of blurred images produced by conventional means and results in clear images of cells interacting. A stunning series of videos are posted online in supplementary materials created by Dr. Mark R. Looney, co-first author and assistant professor in Medicine and Laboratory Medicine at UCSF.
While the clinical application of the technology is a long way off, Looney says it could soon be applied to lung biopsies. For now, Krummel says the research application could potentially lead to significant advances in understanding how cells are organized and deployed.

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Imaging Advances And Proper Displays Are Needed For Accuracy

A New Radiology Center Opened By Papastavros

A new diagnostic screening center has been opened recently by Papastavros' Associates in North Wilmington, North Carolina, that plays an important role in providing high –strength digital X-ray and MRI, while two other centers in Newark will provide open MRI , CT and digital X-ray. Papastavros offers detection and screening services in eight centers throughout Delaware, in addition to a number of walk-in X-ray offices.
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A New Radiology Center Opened By Papastavros

CIVCO Announces New Partnership with UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions

CIVCO Medical Solutions is announcing a co-marketing partnership with UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions of New York, New York. UltraLinq provides healthcare professionals with a secure, web-based solution for the reliable viewing, reporting, managing, sharing, distribution and archiving of multiple ultrasound and medical imaging modalities.

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CIVCO Announces New Partnership with UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions

iSOFT’s Lorenzo Expands In Spain

iSOFT Group Limited, a leading company providing healthcare IT solutions from Australia, announced recently that is has signed a €1 million contract with Cerdanya Cross-Border Hospital Private Foundation in Spain for iSOFT’s Lorenzo Enterprise.
The Foundation is located at the border of Catalonia and France and will be the first to provide a cross-national healthcare model between Spain and France under the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation.
According to the recently signed contract, iSOFT is going to establish an enterprise-wide clinical and hospital management system at Cerdanya Hospital, a 216-bed facility that offers elderly care, the system will be also added to seven primary care clinics in Capcir region in France, along with the Cerdanya region of Catalonia. Lorenzo Enterprise will operate all the offered clinical services. Electronic patient record (EPR) and primary care solutions of the hospital are going to use iSOFT's Viaduct integration platform in order to establish a complete enterprise-wide, clinical and patient information management system. Based on the recent contract, iSOFT is going to set up its solution at the new Cerdanya hospital, which is currently under construction, and is expected to be finished by 2013.

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iSOFT’s Lorenzo Expands In Spain

GE And KeyHIE To Extend Healthcare IT Access In Pennsylvania

GE Healthcare, a major company providing medical imaging systems and healthcare IT solutions, and, Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE), a healthcare IT service provider in central and northeast Pennsylvania, announced that both are planning to expand the capabilities of Health Information Exchange (HIE) in the region to include chronic disease management, in addition to, improving HIE accessibility to more healthcare providers.
Jim Younkin, director, KeyHIE, said “Working with GE, we’ve achieved our initial goal of enhancing patient care by providing critical patient information, like problems, medications, and allergies to our emergency department physicians. Our next step is to use our health information exchange to accelerate collaboration among a broader set of clinicians.” Geisinger Health System, an integrated delivery network well-known for its creative use of healthcare IT care coordination, also a founding participant in KeyHIE, announced that it has received a $16 million Beacon Community award, provided by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. A section of this award is going to be directed towards using KeyHIE in order to expand patient-focused care coordination throughout a community that involves around 250,000 residents.

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GE And KeyHIE To Extend Healthcare IT Access In Pennsylvania

MDCT Aids In Analyzing trajectories and wounds From Bullets

According to a study, published in the March issue of Radiology, Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) offers effective and efficient method in order to analyze wounds from bullets and explosive devices. Les R. Folio, D.O., M.P.H., the lead author of the study, from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md, mentioned that "The information provided by MDCT has the potential to improve patient care and aid in both military and civilian forensic investigations".

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MDCT Aids In Analyzing trajectories and wounds From Bullets

St. Joseph's Hospital Receives ACR Accreditation In Mammography

St. Joseph's Hospital, Buckhannon, WV, announced that it has received a three-year term of accreditation from the American College of Radiology (ACR) in mammography. ACR awarded its accreditation after a recent evaluation of the digital mammography services offered at the hospital.
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St. Joseph's Hospital Receives ACR Accreditation In Mammography