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| March 26, 2009 | |
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New in this IssueNRCNRC Completes Virginia Agreement to Regulate Certain Radioactive Materials RESEARCHMRI, PET/CT Improve Optimal Treatment in Patients With Cervical Cancer Overexposed: Imaging tests boost U.S. radiation dose MR Imaging Helps Avoid Radiation Exposure for Pregnant Women Suspected of Having Acute Appendicitis Filters Lower Radiation Dose in Adult, Pediatric CT Cardiac CT Studies Demonstrate Low Radiation Risk MRI Links Alzheimer’s Marker to Early Brain Damage Brain Tumor Combination Treatment Improves Survival Brain scans spot changes linked to Alzheimer’s TechnologySonohysterography Is An Alternative Diagnostic Tool For Women With Adenomyosis Treadmill Workstations Get Radiologists Moving Is my chemo working? Scans may give faster answer FDAMedicareMedPAC To Congress: Preserve Medicare By Limiting Payment Updates Medical-Legal IssuesThe Joint Commission Expresses Concern Over Poor Infection Control in MRIs The Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 LegislativeAMA Urges Lawmakers To Rebase Doctor Payments To Ease SGR Repeal Health and Human ServicesHHS Names David Blumenthal As National Coordinator for Health Information Technology HHS Makes $268 Million in Recovery Act Funding Available to Support Hospitals U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Measure Inventory GeneralMark G. Watson Named Executive Director of Radiological Society of North America
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To submit articles for future e-News, please email Meetings CalendarShort Course on Monte Carlo Treatment Planning; April 2-4 2009, Philadelphia, PA 40th San Francisco Radiation Oncology Conference; April 17-19, 2009, San Francisco, CA Introduction to Radiation Safety; April 20-24,2009, Oak Ridge, TN 2009 SW AAPM Spring Meeting; April 24, 2009, San Antonio, TX 2009 NCCAAPM Spring Meeting; April 24, 2009, Philadelphia, PA Respiratory Motion Management for Radiation Therapy; April 24-25, 2009, St Louis, MO 2009 Rocky Mountain AAPM Annual Meeting and Symposium;April 25, 2009, Boulder, CO Diagnostic Radiologic Physics Mock Board Examination; April 25-26, 2009, Houston, TX International Conference on Advances in Radiation Oncology (ICARO); April 27-29, 2009, Vienna, Austria Occupational and Environmental Radiation Protection: Principles and Practices of Radiation Safety; April 27-30, 2009, Boston, MA ACMP Annual Meeting; May 2-5, 2009, Virginia Beach, VA Symposium on the Promises and Perils of Proton Radiotherapy; May 8-9, 2009, Baltimore, MD USA MPW’09 - Medical Physics Workshop 2009; May 8-9 2009, Aveiro, Portugal 5th ROSIS Risk Management Course; May 11-14, 2009, Dublin, Ireland Environmental Monitoring for Radioactivity; May 11-15, 2009, Oak Ridge, TN Operational Radiation Protection for Accelerators in Research and Medicine; May 13-20, 2009, Erice, Sicil ASTRO’s Advances in Technology: IGRT and SBRT Symposium; May 15-17, 2009, Miami, FL Spatio-Temporal Radiation Biology: Transdisciplinary Advances for Biomedical Applications; May 16-21, 2009, Sant Feliu de Guixols (Costa Brava), Spain CRCPD Annual Meeting; May 18-21, 2009, Columbus, OH ABS Annual Meeting; May 31- June 2, 2009, Toronto, Canada AAPM Website UpdatesDiagnostic Imaging Medical Physicists List (DXIMGMEDPHYS)
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Placement & Committee AdsPlacement Service Ads as of March 2, 2009 AAPM Committee Classifieds as of March 2, 2009 |
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NRCNRC Completes Virginia Agreement to Regulate Certain Radioactive MaterialsThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed an agreement with the commonwealth of Virginia, under which Virginia will assume NRC’s regulatory authority over certain nuclear materials in the state... [see full article] RESEARCHMRI, PET/CT Improve Optimal Treatment in Patients With Cervical CancerPretreatment MR imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) with CT can help patients make better choices with regards to their therapy for cervical cancer, according to a recent study led by Dr. Pari Pandharipande of the Institute for Technology Assessment. Their work, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, found that although imaging may not improve survival, PET/CT resulted in 89 percent of patients receiving current primary therapy, while use of both MRI and PET/CT allowed 95 percent of patients to avoid trimodality therapy... [see full article] Overexposed: Imaging tests boost U.S. radiation doseAmericans are exposed to seven times more radiation from diagnostic scans than in 1980, a report found on Tuesday as experts said doctors are overusing the tests for profit and raising health risks for patients... [see full article] MR Imaging Helps Avoid Radiation Exposure for Pregnant Women Suspected of Having Acute AppendicitisPurpose: To investigate the effect of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging on the negative laparotomy rate (NLR) and the perforation rate (PR) in pregnant patients suspected of having acute appendicitis (AA) and to assess the need for computed tomography (CT) in this setting...[see full article] Filters Lower Radiation Dose in Adult, Pediatric CTTechnology continues to help reconcile radiology’s dual needs for image quality and low CT radiation dose, according to new research from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston... [see full article] Cardiac CT Studies Demonstrate Low Radiation RiskNew studies presented at RSNA 2008 challenge reports of high radiation risk from cardiac CT and offer ways to even further reduce the risk... [see full article] MRI Links Alzheimer’s Marker to Early Brain DamageResearchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used MRI to link a potential indicator of Alzheimer’s disease to brain damage in humans with no signs of mental impairment, according to a study published online in the February of Annals of Neurology... [see full article] Brain Tumor Combination Treatment Improves SurvivalCombined postoperative treatment of glioblastoma patients with radiation and temozolomide improves five-year survival over radiation alone, though most patients still eventually die of the disease, according to an article published online Mar. 9 in The Lancet Oncology... [see full article] Brain scans spot changes linked to Alzheimer’sCertain patterns of brain shrinkage seen on MRI scans foreshadow the development of Alzheimer’s disease, investigators report... [see full article] TechnologyUnenhanced CT Plus MR Imaging Improves Accuracy for Distinguishing Between TDL and Primary Brain TumorsPurpose: To determine retrospectively whether unenhanced computed tomographic (CT) images of the brain have added value in distinguishing tumefactive demyelinating lesions (TDLs) from primary glioma or central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, compared with conventional contrast material–enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) images only... [see full article] Sonohysterography Is An Alternative Diagnostic Tool For Women With AdenomyosisSonohysterography (SHG), a simple ultrasound technique commonly used to evaluate the uterine cavity, improves the diagnostic capability of transvaginal ultrasound in detecting adenomyosis (a common benign condition of the uterus that causes dysmenorrhea, abnormal vaginal bleeding and pelvic pain), according to a study performed at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA... [see full article] Treadmill Workstations Get Radiologists MovingRadiologists can add simultaneous physical exercise on a treadmill to their daily image reading routines without compromising diagnostic accuracy, according to an exhibit presented at RSNA 2008... [see full article] Is my chemo working? Scans may give faster answerWhen Mike Stevens learned his lungs were riddled with cancer, it took only a week to start chemotherapy — but six weeks to find out if it was doing any good. "You’re going through all this suffering and stuff and you want to know, am I going to survive? Is this stuff working?" said Stevens, 48, of La Jolla, Calif. "Your whole life is in sort of a limbo."... [see full article] FDAObama Picks FDA ChiefU.S. President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Food and Drug Administration, Margaret Hamburg, is a well-known bioterrorism expert with years of experience in public health... [see full article] MedicareMedPAC To Congress: Preserve Medicare By Limiting Payment UpdatesCongress’ Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) calls on lawmakers in its March report to revamp nine payment systems ranging from those affecting physicians to rehab facilities, and says tweaking payment systems and shrinking or eliminating 2010 updates are key to the longer-term goal of sustaining Medicare. The message has already spurred protests from skilled nursing facility representatives, who told lawmakers last week that the proposed cuts to SNFs would threaten broader health reform goals by undermining the nursing home industry... [see full article] Medical-Legal IssuesThe Joint Commission Expresses Concern Over Poor Infection Control in MRIsIn its February 2009 newsletter, "Environments of Care News," the Joint Commission, the main entity that accredits hospitals in the United States, has published an article titled "Preventing Infections in the MRI Suite: Magnetic Environment Poses Strong Challenges." ... [see full article] The Medical Device Safety Act of 2009Patient safety is a national concern. Major stakeholders throughout our health care system agree that every step must be taken to ensure that medical interventions, used with the intention of improving patients’ health, are as safe as possible. But every medical intervention has benefits and risks. Patient safety can be ensured only when the makers of drugs and devices fully and openly disclose both the benefits and the potential adverse effects associated with an intervention... [see full article] Health and Human ServicesHHS Names David Blumenthal As National Coordinator for Health Information TechnologyThe Department of Health and Human Services today announced the selection of David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. as the Obama Administration’s choice for National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. As the National Coordinator, Dr. Blumenthal will lead the implementation of a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected health information technology infrastructure as called for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act... [see full article] HHS Makes $268 Million in Recovery Act Funding Available to Support HospitalsBuilding on President Barack Obama’s efforts to ensure access to health care for millions of uninsured Americans, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced that states can access an additional $268 million authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help pay hospitals to treat their most vulnerable patients... [see full article] LegislativeAMA Urges Lawmakers To Rebase Doctor Payments To Ease SGR RepealAdvocates for physicians recently urged lawmakers to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) that annually updates physician and freestanding center payments under Medicare, and suggested a budget gimmick that would allow lawmakers to use scare funds for health care reform instead of offsetting the SGR repeal... [see full article] GeneralAct Now for RSNA 2009 Abstracts, Awards and Member RegistrationThe online system to submit abstracts for RSNA 2009 is now open. The submission deadline is 12:00 p.m. Central time on April 15, 2009. Abstracts are required for scientific papers, scientific posters and education and applied science exhibits. Submit an abstract online at For more information about the abstract submission process, contact the RSNA Program Services Department at 1-877-776-2227 within the U.S. or 1-630-590-7774 outside the U.S. *Travel Awards for Young Investigators in Molecular Imaging *Member Registration Opens April 29 RSNA 2009 registration is FREE for RSNA members. If you haven’t renewed your membership for 2009, renew now at http://www.rsna.org/renew to be eligible for member registration. ***** ***** ***** *****
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Symposium on the Promises and Perils of Proton Radiotherapy