A nationwide U.S. survey found that women overwhelmingly want the option for additional screening tests to find cancer early, even when testing resulted in a false positive. Nine out of 10 women who required a biopsy to determine a false positive indicated that they would still opt for the additional screening the following year.

Interoperability is expanding in many hospitals, but one cant clearly know exactly where to look to observe it in each stage of development as it matures, says James P. Keller Jr., vice president of health technology evaluation and safety at ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pa, who presented at the Center for Business Innovations recent conference on medical device connectivity at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The MRI technique called SWIFT (Sweep Imaging with Fourier Transformation) appears feasible to help provide a 3D assessment that may aid in detecting invasion of the mandible by oral cancer, according to a study in the September issue of Archives of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

While the most common medical application for data reconciliation is in pharmaceutical reconciliation, this concept can be applied to the delivery of medical imaging services, which begins with order entry and ends with reporting and communication, according to an article published in the September edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Hospitals have made some adjustments to their policies regarding the use of wireless devices, creating an atmosphere for increased use of these systems, according to Kalorama Information.

An act of thievery at the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine has resulted in a notification to 3,192 individuals that their confidential patient information may have been compromised.

New England Journal of Medicine tackled the tough topic of mammography screening recommendations given the considerable confusion and controversy, resulting from the revision of U.S. Preventative Services Task Force guidelines in November 2009. After reviewing the evidence, Ellen Warner, MD, of the division of medical oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at University of Toronto, suggested screening mammography for most women ages 40 to 70.

While the original intent of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) provision of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 was noble, nine years of congressional overrides have contributed to higher Medicare spending on physician services and left the federal government with a significant budget deficit exposure, according to a report from healthcare performance management developer MedeAnalytics.