I’ve received several inquiries from women living in various regions of the country, asking how they should choose where to go for their mammogram, and if it really matters. I cannot emphasize this enough: It matters! Here are a few tips to help your search:
The most basic requirement is whether a facility is accredited under the MQSA (Mammography Quality Standards Act). The accrediting body for most states is the ACR …
A tug-of-war is going on in medicine right now between the past and the future. The present is confused and very unsure of itself.
Though I could be writing about health care in the U.S and the looming Supreme Court battle over the new health care law, I’m actually raising a much more intimate issue: Whether your doctor touches (examines) you or not.
Many pundits have weighed in on whether the …
In a widely circulated CNN article, many radiologists have been found to cheat on their board exams: “Doctors around the country taking an exam to become board certified in radiology have cheated by memorizing test questions, creating sophisticated banks of what are known as ‘recalls,’ … The recall exams are meticulously compiled by radiology residents, who write down the questions …
Radiology is the cornerstone of any hospital. An efficient, high-quality, well-run radiology department increases patient satisfaction as a result of its ability to improve patient care. Over time, a well-run radiology department adds significant patient volumes to the hospital, which, of course, favorably enhances the hospital’s bottom line. Regardless of whether the hospital is not-for-profit or for-profit, a smooth-sailing radiology department vastly increases the profitability of the hospital. The …
Federal law generally prohibits physicians from referring their own patients to a diagnostic facility in which they have an ownership issue – a practice called “self-referral” – unless the facility is located in their own practice.
This exemption exists to allow patients with access to a laboratory test, x-ray, or other imaging test at the same time and place as when patients are seeing their physician for an office visit. Less …
Radiology has transformed into a core subject of medicine, since imaging procedures are getting more and more crucial to clinical decisions. Whether these developments, be it over-diagnosing or unnecessary radiation on the one hand or a more detailed and enhanced way of diagnostics on the other, are …
With healthcare reform dominating the news recently, MRI and other imaging tests have become the (misguided) targets of many critics.
Although MRI makes up only one-half of one percent of total healthcare expenditures, it is easy to demonize since the average healthcare consumer can understand imaging much easier than the diagnosis related groups (DRGs), hospital facility fees or insurance contracts that have a much greater impact on the cost of health …
by Michael Kirsch, MD
Does anyone out there know why President Obama underwent a virtual ‘colonscopy’ (VC) instead of a conventional colonoscopy earlier this year?
In my gastroenterology practice, we do not offer colon cancer screening to 48-year-old individuals, unless special risk factors are present. Of course, maintaining the president’s health is in the national interest, so I understand why professional screening guidelines might not apply to him. For …
I am often asked how we get the prices for the radiology imaging tests, such as MRI’s and mammograms, or ultrasounds. Most people assume that my day job as a doc gives me some sort of special access to this info. But that’s just not the case. Anyone can find out testing prices.
However, over the last year, those of us working at LesliesList.org have gotten more experienced and better at …
During residency, there was always a case of misdiagnosed chest pain to discuss in conference. Incorrectly sending a patient home and missing the diagnosis of cardiac chest pain was an infrequent, but repetitively observed, phenomenon.
So as to tread carefully with words, it is sufficient to say that even now, chest pain triage remains a vexing problem.
Chest pain diagnosis is like appendicitis; there are always small numbers of unusual cases in …
It’s commonly thought that health care in the United States is heavily dependent on diagnostic testing.
But how do we compare with the rest of the world? Perhaps these graphs, courtesy of the New York Times can provide a stark illustration.
Here’s the data regarding CT scans, showing the number of tests per 1,000 people. Guess which country’s on top:
by an anonymous radiologist
I recently read the article and comments on this link from this post, concerning radiologists, from Musings of a Dinosaur.
I was disturbed to discover the animosity with which this topic is covered. The tenor of the blog is that radiologists are greedy, self-serving and are out to erode the doctor-patient relationship. The suggestion that radiologists would schedule percutaneous breast biopsies for their financial enhancement is both …
Most prefer the bottom line, sparing them the raw data.
Primary care physician Rob Lamberts asks that exact question, and reprints sample reports of lab tests and an echocardiogram, demonstrating the wealth of information they contain.
So, borrowing this image from Dr. Rob, I’m not sure how useful something like this would be to patients (sorry for the small type, but you get the idea):
Read more…
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Cool x-rays, but more importantly, why was this man cleaning his teeth with a pair of scissors in the first place?
(via Shadowfax)
More hospitals are resorting to so-called “dayhawk” radiology services to read their x-rays.
It’s modeled after the “nighthawk” model, where radiologists (via Shadowfax), in some cases as far away as India, remotely read films in the middle of the night.
Now, the phenomenon is happening during business hours as well, which according to radiologist Giles W. L. Boland, means that “some radiologists can no longer assume long-term …
This is an important article to read.
Many of the incentives today encourage doctors to order more advanced imaging scans, like CTs and MRIs. This expensive practice is invariably caused by this common scenario, as “patients who are in pain often demand scans hoping to find out what is wrong, doctors are tempted to offer scans to those patients, and then, once a scan is done, it …
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Most physicians and patients think that the MRI scan is one of the more sensitive and comprehensive diagnostic tests.
However, there is significant variability in reading and performing the scans, which makes having it done at a reputable institution more imperative:
Magnetic resonance machines, though, vary enormously, and not just in the strength of their magnets. Even more important, radiologists say, is the quality of the imaging …
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