Dear AuntMinnie Member,
This week brings news that might not surprise many in the radiology industry: The number of medical imaging procedures performed in the Medicare system in the U.S. dropped in 2009.
The finding, released this week in a report by an imaging industry lobbying group, represents the first such drop in imaging volume in 11 years. It confirms other studies that have been released recently documenting a slowdown in imaging's growth after a decade of rapid increase.
The report's authors said the decline is proof that Medicare patients are being denied full access to lifesaving imaging procedures. But could it also be a sign that many of the excesses of inappropriate imaging utilization are being wrung out of the U.S. healthcare system? Decide for yourself after reading the article in our Imaging Leaders Digital Community.
In other news this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a new fast-track process for innovative premarket approval (PMA) medical devices that could halve the amount of time it takes for products to navigate the FDA. But how often will it be used for imaging products, most of which go through the less onerous 510(k) process?
Learn more by clicking here, or visit the community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
Digital x-ray shifts from CR to DR
Meanwhile, a new market research study highlights the gaining momentum of digital x-ray -- specifically digital radiography (DR) -- as hospitals move to upgrade medical imaging's oldest modality.
The report showed that the conversion to digital x-ray is almost complete in the U.S., with only 4% of the hospitals surveyed still using analog radiography. And when facilities are buying new equipment, they prefer DR by more than 3-to-1 compared to computed radiography (CR).
Find out what else the report predicts for the digital x-ray market by clicking here, or visit our Digital X-Ray Community at xray.auntminnie.com.
