IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, a provider of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently approved three organizations as designated accrediting bodies for non-hospital providers of advanced medical imaging. Stephen Green, MD, chief of cardiology at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, N.Y., said that such accreditation standardization makes sense.

For ruling out coronary artery disease (CAD), multidetector CT (16-slice or more) is more accurate than MRI, according to a retrospective study in todays Annals of Internal Medicine.

Our 2010 Compensation Survey offers interesting insight. CMIOs are generally satisfied with their compensation and happy with their career choice, according to those who completed our CMIO 2010 Compensation Survey. Does this sound like you?

Eastern Diagnostic Imaging and InfiMed have developed an original equipment manufacturer distribution partnership for the wireless technology in the portable x-ray environment, the i5 Mobile DR upgrade for GE Healthcare's AMX-4 and AMX-4+ portables.

When added to MRI, gadolinium-based contrast agents were found to substantially enhance the malignancy criteria for primary tumor visualization, as well as increase the accuracy in the detection of lymph node metastases, according to a meta-analysis published in the February edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

As hospitals start looking at how to break down the walls between acute and post-acute care, CMIOs would do well to consider the experience of Cleveland Clinic, a pioneer in building health IT bridges across the continuum of care.

CIOs and CMIOs are finding new ways to balance enterprise data storage challenges with providing electronic patient information and images where and when they are needed.