January/February 2008

As SPECT imaging migrates to private physicians offices, PET/CT provides hospitals an opportunity to recapture some of that business.

The EMR and other investments in IT infrastructure represent a winning scenario for office-based cardiology practices. As practices transition toward an EMR, they need to look beyond software and consider questions about hardware and staffing, too. Insiders can provide a wealth of information about the benefits and do’s and don’ts of IT infrastructure and steer their colleagues toward a smooth implementation.

Considered to be a critical diagnostic tool in imaging patients with suspected or confirmed coronary artery disease (CAD), single photo emission computed tomography (SPECT) is holding its own against emerging cardiovascular imaging modalities such as cardiac CT and MRI and offers considerable advantages that cannot be ignored.

In 2007, the number of electronic medical record system installs jumped 22 percent over the previous year. Approximately one-third of U.S. physicians now have an EMR system, while cardiology EMR adoption is estimated to be 8 to 9 percent, ranking high among specialties, according to the Medical Records Institute

Although declining reimbursement led to a fall in sales of 64-slice CT scanners in 2007, practices with sufficient volume can still make their technology investment pay off, thus bringing marketing to the fore in the battle to maintain or increase market share. Despite the decline in sales, 64-slice scanners are still selling, and with recent innovations in the field — such as Toshiba’s Aquilion ONE, a dynamic volume CT with 320 detector rows with 0.5mm elements — the challenge for both new and established practices is keeping the cardiac CT scanner busy enough to at least break even.

In the realm of diagnostic displays, the line between color and grayscale is starting to blur. Many facilities are embracing such a merge—presenting a variety of color and grayscale medical images along with other critical patient information in comprehensive displays with multiple monitors to review studies across different modalities.

Cardiologists need to weigh the benefits of the more efficacious branded statins in comparison to the less expensive generics.

With the growing volume and size of imaging studies, disaster recovery is a big job for most organizations to manage. Careful, thorough planning and good vendor relationships can go a long way in helping everyone involved sleep better at night.