Endosonography performed better than traditional surgical staging in detecting nodal metastases in patients with lung cancer, while combining both procedures improved sensitivity to 94 percent and cut unnecessary thoracotomies by half, according to a study published Nov. 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Boston Scientific is set to make headway in the aortic valve market by entering into a definitive agreement to purchase Sadra Medical for $225 million.

Hospitals nationwide are scrambling to handle what is literally a growing image problem higher-quality, volume-rich imaging studies are pushing storage needs to the terabyte realm and beyond. Accessing these images from longer-term storage and across systems also is a growing challenge.

Server-side processing permits 3D image manipulation to take place on a central server before being transmitted to a thin client. This is one innovation that will help facilities meet meaningful use criteria regarding the integration of advanced visualization imaging into the EMR. But there are still some technical challenges ahead.

Researchers from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania have developed an automated radiation dose extraction tool that polls existing CT dose datasets to extract dose-related parameters, which may be used to train and educate healthcare providers and create cumulative radiation dose profiles for patients. The system delivers improved patient care and management, stated the authors in an article published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Stryker has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Boston Scientific's neurovascular division for $1.5 billion.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, amended by the HealthCare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 is a controversial and polarizing law about which reasonable and intelligent people can disagree in good faith, said Roger Vinson, senior U.S. District Judge, beginning his Oct. 14 ruling in favor of allowing 20 states to move forward with a challenge to the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform legislation.

The incidence of cardiovascular (CV) disease will increase by 73 percent in China by 2030, and researchers expect the CV device market to skyrocket to $1.6 billion in 2016, making it the largest of the emerging countries, according to a report published by GlobalData.