It's a story that could confirm the worst fears of med tech implant wearers at the highest level of U.S. government: Some time during the first half of 2013, hackers reportedly broke into the computer networks of the big three medical device makers, and the breach might have stayed open for "several months." Read more [...]
A decade has passed since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) drew widespread attention to the tremendous costs—in terms of morbidity, mortality, and financial impact—of medication-related errors and medical adverse events in its landmark report To Err is Human.1 An upcoming IOM study focused on diagnostic errors is reportedly on the horizon. Read more here.
Patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) have a unique presentation that clinicians are learning to recognize -- and medical imaging plays a role in both diagnosing and following up cases, according to researchers from Saudi Arabia in a new paper in Annals of Internal Medicine. Read more here.
In a new legislative proposal, the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Coalition charges that a bipartisan bill introduced in October 2013 to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act "goes too far" in deregulating CDS software that requires regulation to ensure the health and safety of patients. Read more here.
A new op-ed article published today in the New York Times is revisiting the debate over medical radiation and cancer, linking the overuse of CT to rising cancer rates and even death in patients who are scanned. The editorial discusses the rising use of CT over the past 20 years, with one in 10 Americans now undergoing [...]
GE Healthcare will work with a technology R&D center in India to develop new med tech products. The Economic Times of India and others reported on the news. Right now the investment isn't very large. GE Healthcare said it inked a three-year research and development deal with the Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre in Chennai to concoct devices [...]
The findings appear to dovetail with other studies that have shown an overall slowdown in utilization of advanced imaging technologies throughout the U.S. But while CT use has fallen over the past couple of years, the report indicates that the age of the CT installed based has climbed significantly, generating hope that scanner sales could [...]
With the world’s major producing reactors shutting down regularly or facing decommission, some enterprising solutions to medical isotope production are jockeying to pick up the slack in North America, according to a review published Dec. 11, 2013, inNature. Read more here.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC's) major announcement of a one-year extension for Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 got industry stakeholders talking. While there is added flexibility down the road, there remains no immediate relief as Stage 2 rolls out—leaving many in [...]
A new analysis of National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) data has found that as many as one-fifth of all lung cancer diagnoses may represent overdiagnosis -- that is, detection of indolent or slow-growing lung cancers that may never have harmed the patient, according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine. Read more here.