IHE® Issues Call for Committee Participants
Users and vendors are invited to join the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE®) domain committees and participate in the current cycle of profile development. Participants have the opportunity to influence the adoption of standards for sharing electronic medical information and improving care. All domain committees are seeking members:
- Anatomic pathology
- Eye care
- IT infrastructure
- Laboratory
- Patient care coordination
- Patient care devices
- Quality, research and public health
- Radiation oncology
- Radiology
For more information on each committee, go to the domain listing at the top of the screen at www.ihe.net and access the Wiki page for each category. Those interested in participating or learning more should contact secretaries listed for each committee.
IHE is an initiative of RSNA and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records by improving the exchange of information among healthcare systems.
ACR Calls for Revocation of Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations
The American College of Radiology (ACR) is strongly opposing the newly revised U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) screening recommendations for breast cancer, calling the controversial guidelines "a step backward" and asking the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to rescind the recommendations.
USPSTF recommendations issued in November advise against regular mammography screening for women 40–49 years of age, provide mammograms only every other year for women between 50 and 74, and stop all breast cancer screening in women over 74.
The task force concluded that, "There are insufficient data to determine which particular screening strategy is best in terms of the balance of benefits and harms or cost-effectiveness." ACR and the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) continue to urge following American Cancer Society guidelines recommending mammograms for all healthy women beginning at age 40.
ACR and SBI issued a joint response to the recommendations, reading in part:
"These unfounded USPSTF recommendations ignore the valid scientific data and place a great many women at risk of dying unnecessarily from a disease that we have made significant headway against over the past 20 years," said Carol H. Lee, M.D., chair of the ACR Breast Imaging Commission.
A full report on the recommendations will appear in the January issue of RSNA News.
RadiologyInfo™ Receives Two Healthcare Information Awards
RadiologyInfo.org, the joint RSNA/American College of Radiology (ACR) patient information portal, recently received two honors: the Gold Award for best health/healthcare in the eHealthcare Leadership Awards competition and a merit certificate from the Health Information Resource Center's (HIRC) Web Health Awards competition.
The eHealthcare Leadership Awards recognize the best Web sites of healthcare organizations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers and business improvement initiatives.
An independent panel of 116 healthcare and the Internet experts rated Web sites based on a standard of Internet excellence. Considerations included, "How extensive, balanced, up-to-date, well-organized and credible is the information presented?" and "Can material be tailored to individual needs?" Winners were honored in the November issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends.
HIRC recognizes the best Web-based health-related content for consumers and professionals and is an extension of HIRC's 16-year-old National Health Information Awards. A panel of international health information and Internet experts judge entries based on accuracy, success in reaching target audience and overall quality. RadiologyInfo.org was selected from nearly 1,000 entries.
Created in 2000 as a first-of-its-kind joint RSNA/ACR project, RadiologyInfo.org draws nearly 500,000 hits a month and increases its traffic by 25 percent each year.
2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Ruling Raises Patient Access Concerns
Radiologists are warning that proposed increases to the imaging equipment utilization rate assumption under the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MFS) could restrict many patients' access to critical imaging procedures.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the review copy of the 2010 MFS final rule in October. The American College of Radiology (ACR) has opened a public comment period to be submitted to CMS by end of this month.
Proposed changes would raise the rate assumption—the time imaging equipment is assumed to be in operation during office hours—from 50 percent to 90 percent. Such cuts could imperil rural- and community-based imaging centers, which according to the Radiology Business Management Association only use equipment 48 percent of office hours, said James H. Thrall, M.D., chair of ACR's Board of Chancellors and an 2007 RSNA Gold Medalist.
"Many hospitals are not equipped to handle the substantial influx of patients that could result from the inevitable closure of rural and suburban imaging facilities caused by these cuts," said Dr. Thrall, radiologist-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and Juan M. Taveras Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Wait times will surge. Access will plummet and lives may be lost due to these ill-advised cuts."
Although proposed reimbursement rates would cut funding to imaging providers an average of 16 percent, specific changes would reduce reimbursement for exams such as lung CT and spine MR by 40 percent or more, ACR reported.
"Not only will these cuts affect patients in need of high-tech scans, but wait times for common exams like bone density scans and even mammography will skyrocket," continued Dr. Thrall. "Women could wait months or longer to receive mammograms if additional nonhospital providers who rely on offsetting payments for MR and CT to allow them to offer mammograms, are forced to stop providing the service."
The fee schedule ruling is available at www.federalregister.gov/.Print Journal Opt-Out Available on myRSNA®
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RSNA members who prefer to receive electronic-only versions of RSNA journals including Radiology, RadioGraphics and RSNA News, can now "opt out" of receiving print copies n the mail. Along with furthering RSNA efforts to go "green," the paperless versions offer online subscribers additional features. To opt out, members can log onto myRSNA at RSNA.org, go to My Profile and click "Print Journal Opt-Out" to select the print journals they no longer wish to receive in the mail.
