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New in this IssueNIHThe NIH Challenge Grant information is now live on the NIH Web site American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and NIH funding RESEARCHMRI Shows Brain Atrophy Pattern That Predicts Alzheimer’s Dose Escalation of IMRT or Brachytherapy Benefits Patients With Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer TechnologySonography May Be Appropriate Primary Imaging Modality for Localization of Parathyroid Adenomas Sequential and Alternating Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Similarly Effective for Larynx Cancer Researchers Use MDCT to Improve Surgical Protocol Planning for Patients With Pancreatic SPTs Experts Predict Increase in Utilization of SPECT/CT FDAFDA Approves the Accreditation Bodies to Accredit Three New FFDM Units Governmental Entity (GE) Audit 2008 March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month FDA Warns About Risk of Wearing Medicated Patches During MRIs FDA MedWatch - Transdermal Drug Patches with Metallic Backings: risk of burns during MRI scans MedicareMedicare Blow to Virtual Colonoscopies Obama Budget Leans Politically Right On Radiology Benefit Managers Medical-Legal IssuesExperts Release Guidelines on Use of Breast MRI LegislativeStimulus Bill Enacted with Obama’s Signature President Obama Taps Sebelius as HHS Secretary; DeParle to Lead White House Office for Health Reform GeneralScary Headlines Inflate Radiation Risk Diamond heads to Chicago for the AAAS Meeting Cost-Effectiveness of CT Colonography to Screen for Colorectal Cancer Joint Commission February Newsletter - Now Available Funding Opportunities
IOMP Travel Assistance Program for WC 2009 Attendance - Deadline April 30, 2009
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To submit articles for future e-News, please email Meetings CalendarSEAAPM 2009 Annual Symposium and Scientific Meeting; March 12-14 2009 in Chapel Hill, NC 2009 NW AAPM and AAMD Region I Spring Meeting & Symposium; March 20-21, 2009 in Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA Annual Congress & Workshop of the South African Association for Physicists in Medicine and Biology (SAAPMB); March 24-28 2009, Bloemfontein, South Africa 2009 SW AAPM Spring Meeting; March 26-28, 2009, San Antonio, TX Short 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 Respiratory Motion Management for Radiation Therapy; April 24-25, 2009, St Louis, MO 2009 RM 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 AAPM Website UpdatesDiagnostic Imaging Medical Physicists List (DXIMGMEDPHYS)
New Federal Nuclear Response Guide Announced
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RESEARCHChemotherapy, Radiation, and More Chemotherapy Most Effective Sequence for Advanced Endometrial Cancer: Presented at SGOFor patients with advanced-stage endometrial cancer, chemotherapy followed by radiation and then more chemotherapy (CRC) appears to confer better survival than either radiation followed by chemotherapy (RC) or chemotherapy followed by radiation (CR), researchers reported here at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) 40th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer... [see full article] MRI Shows Brain Atrophy Pattern That Predicts Alzheimer’sUsing special MRI methods, researchers have identified a pattern of regional brain atrophy in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that indicates a greater likelihood of progression to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study... [see full article] Dose Escalation of IMRT or Brachytherapy Benefits Patients With Intermediate-Risk Prostate CancerPatients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer achieve higher rates of biochemical control with dose escalation of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or permanent transperineal brachytherapy (BRT) -- alone or combined with a conventional-dose 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) -- compared with patients treated with 3D-CRT alone, according to results from a retrospective comparison study... [see full article] TechnologySonography May Be Appropriate Primary Imaging Modality for Localization of Parathyroid AdenomasThe purpose of this study was to determine the utility of radiologist-performed sonography as the principal modality for parathyroid localization before minimally invasive parathyroidectomy... [see study] Sequential and Alternating Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Similarly Effective for Larynx CancerResearchers affiliated with the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group have reported that patients with operable, advanced squamous cell cancer of the larynx or hypopharynx benefit equally from two different approaches to the delivery of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The details of this randomized study were published early online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on January 17, 2009... [see full article] Researchers Use MDCT to Improve Surgical Protocol Planning for Patients With Pancreatic SPTsThe research team led by Prof. Wang DB from Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine used the sophisticated MDCT, which is broadly applied in clinical practice for detection and characterization of pancreatic abnormalities... [see full article] Experts Predict Increase in Utilization of SPECT/CTManufacturers expect single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT to outpace dedicated standalone SPECT systems in the near future. This surge comes as early adopters of the combination scanners tout their patient care benefits in major medical journals. Encouraged by this reception, manufacturers and clinicians are exploring additional SPECT/CT applications and developing new hardware and software upgrades... [see full article] FDAFDA Approves the Accreditation Bodies to Accredit Three New FFDM UnitsFDA announced the approval for the Siemens Novation S, the Hologic Selenia S, and the Hologic Selenia Dimensions 2D Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) units... [see full article] Governmental Entity (GE) Audit 2008The Act requires that mammography facilities submit an annual self-certification form (Form FDA 3422) to have the yearly mammography inspection fee waived. To verify this information, FDA randomly selected 94 of the approximately 800 mammography facilities who claimed GE status, to participate in this audit... [see full article] March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness MonthIn conjunction with National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reminds health care professionals that Medicare provides coverage for certain colorectal cancer screenings... [see full article] FDA Warns About Risk of Wearing Medicated Patches During MRIsCertain adhesive patches that deliver medication through the skin have been found to be a risk to patient safety. The patches, if worn while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging scans or MRIs, can cause skin burns, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today... [see full article] MedicareMedicare Blow to Virtual ColonoscopiesMedicare has tentatively decided not to pay for virtual colonoscopies, dealing a setback to a technique that some medical experts recommend as a more tolerable alternative to conventional colonoscopy in screening for colon cancer... [see full article] Obama Budget Leans Politically Right On Radiology Benefit ManagersThere appears to be at least three policies that the White House has included in its budget that have drawn opposition from congressional Democrats in the past, including prescription drug means-testing, increasing funding for the CMS Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) program, and use of radiology benefit managers (RBMs) in Medicare... [see full article] Medical-Legal IssuesExperts Release Guidelines on Use of Breast MRIMRI should supplement and enhance current screening and diagnostic for breast cancer, not serve as a substitute for it, according to newly released physician guidelines. The guidelines, published Monday in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, give needed direction for using breast MRI, a relatively new clinical tool... [see full article] LegislativeStimulus Bill Enacted with Obama’s SignaturePresident Barack Obama signed into law a $787 billion economic-stimulus bill that allocates at least $20 billion for health information technology and $10 billion for research programs under the National Institutes of Health, including $1 billion for cancer research. The package also includes more than $1 billion for comparative-effectiveness research and about $1 billion for clinical and community-based prevention services. Obama Squeezes Billions From Providers, Drug Firms, Insurers, High-Income Seniors To Fund Health Care ReserveThe Obama administration’s 2010 budget proposes to set up a $634 billion, 10-year health care reserve fund to implement comprehensive health reforms, but in turn slashes $316 billion in payments affecting key Medicare and Medicaid stakeholders to help pay for the initiative... [see full article] President Obama Taps Sebelius as HHS Secretary; DeParle to Lead White House Office for Health ReformPresident Barack Obama announced Monday that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is his choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Obama hailed her as an ideal person to work with Republicans as well as Democrats to fix an ailing health care system. Sebelius drew praise for the consumer watchdog role she played as Kansas insurance commissioner for eight years before she became governor... [see full article] GeneralScary Headlines Inflate Radiation Risk"Huge Increase," "Overexposed," and "Higher Than Ever" are some of the terms in headlines yesterday reporting that the average American’s exposure to radiation from medical procedures has risen over the last 30 years... [see full article] Diamond heads to Chicago for the AAAS MeetingDiamond will be participating in two symposia and two news briefings at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting (12th – 16th February), which is being held in Chicago and follows the theme ‘Our Planet and its Life: Origins and Futures’... [more information] Cost-Effectiveness of CT Colonography to Screen for Colorectal CancerThe information in this report is intended to help health care decision-makers; patients and clinicians, health system leaders, and policymakers, make well-informed decisions and thereby improve the quality of health care services... [see full article]
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