With its deleterious impact on employment and health insurance, the recession has put emergency departments (EDs) across the United States under a tremendous amount of pressure, according to a report issued by the Kaiser Family Foundations Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Areas of brain damage, indicated through white matter hyperintensity volume and infarcts seen on brain MRI, which originally thought to be related to stroke, may help doctors predict a person's risk of memory problems in old age, according to research published in today's issue of Neurology.

GE Healthcare has received FDA clearance for its Optima MR450w, a new 70-cm bore, 1.5T MRI system. The larger-bore platform is commonly touted for patients who are obese or claustrophobic.

Health IT developer Merge Healthcare has entered a definitive agreement to acquire MRI computer-aided detection (CAD) application developer Confirma in an all-stock transaction.

Marylands Health Services Cost Review Commission has approved up to $10 million in startup funding to build a statewide health information exchange (HIE), with the hope more funding will be available later this year through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Carestream Health is launching a PACS for small medical practices at the 2009 meeting of the Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) in Las Vegas this week.

Time Medical has received FDA approval for its Pica 0.35T whole-body open MRI system.

MRI may aid physicians in the early diagnosis, staging and treatment of diabetes, according to research in this month's American Journal of Roentgenology.