Editorial

Dear readers, There are a number of definitions of quality. The English dictionary provides three, of which the initial one explains it as the degree of excellence of a thing. However, where medical imaging is concerned, this precise definition needs to be elucidated in order to provide a benchmark for both customers and providers. Quality of care for diagnostic imaging and image–guided treatment...

Association News

Join an International Audience of Management Experts! Given the discussion-provoking and even controversial views presented at last year’s edition, this year’s annual Management in Radiology (MIR) conference, set to take place in Oxford, England from Wednesday, October 10, to Saturday, October 13, 2007, promises to raise even greater awareness of the importance of sharing management practices and ide...

The recently-held 25th Annual International EuroPACS Meeting, held in conjunction with the CARS congress, from June 27 – 30, 2007, in Berlin, Germany, addressed a wide range of information technologies and related topics. With cutting-edge themes ranging from regional PACS and teleradiology, to architecture, workstations and archiving, the conference proved once again that it is the central gathering poi...

Registration for next year’s eighth instalment of the IHE-Europe Oxford Connectathon, to be held at St Catherine’s College in the centre of Oxford, UK, will open on September 15, 2007 and close December 7, 2007. Participants will benefit from the success of previous events, to ensure that interoperability remains a hot topic and to ensure the future success of their systems with regards to interopera...

The 21st International Congress and Exhibition of CARS 2007 (Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery) was successfully held at the International Conference Centre in Berlin with 945 Registrants from 46 countries. The CARS meeting was also home to the 11th Annual Conference of the International Society for Computer Aided Surgery; the 9th International Workshop on Computer- Aided Diagnosis; the 25th Internat...

For women at high risk of breast cancer, use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plus xray mammography for screening will detect more breast cancers than mammography alone, says ECRI Institute in a new technology assessment report. But the number of false positives - indicating a problem where none exists - will rise significantly also. The report aimed to determine whether the combination of MRI and mammo...

CIRSE 2007 will take place September 8-12, Athens, Greece at the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre. Highlights of the scientific programme are outlined below. Scientific Programme For CIRSE 2007, the programme has been designed around five main themes.This years main topics are: • Vascular intervention; • Transcatheter embolisation; • Non-vascular intervention; • Interven...

EU News

Focus on Musculoskeletal Disorders Author Dervla Gleeson Managing Editor IMAGING Management [email protected] The European ‘Lighten the Load’ campaign has been initiated to promote an integrated management approach to tackle musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) embracing prevention of MSDs, and the retention, rehabilitation and reintegration of workers who already suffer from MSDs...

Industry News

GE Healthcare Centricity RIS-IC Earns Certification GE Healthcare’s Integrated IT Solutions (IITS) business has announced that its Centricity RIS-IC services organisation has achieved certification under the Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards programme. GE Healthcare’s IITS business achieved certification under the SCP Support Standard after an extensive audit of its Burlingto...

Cover Story

Author Dr Conall J. Garvey Consultant Radiologist Royal Liverpool University Hospital Liverpool, UK [email protected] Healthcare in the UK is undergoing a major restructuring. New untested independent healthcare providers are appearing on the scene, especially in medical imaging, making it crucial that clinical standards are implemented and improved.A leading UK accreditation programm...

Clinical audit is a continuous improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change.A cyclical approach to comparison of practice against the standard with implementation of changes has led to the audit spiral concept, leading onwards and upwards to the eventual attainment of the standard, and presum...

Author Dr Howard Galloway Chief Radiologist Aspetar Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital Sports City Doha, Qatar [email protected] The Quality Use of Diagnostic Imaging (QUDI) programme is an initiative administered by the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) on behalf of the profession and funded by the Australian government to systematical...

Developing a System for Better Healthcare Authors Kyung-Hyun Do (above) Dong-Gyu Na Tae-Hwan Lim Korean Institute for Accreditation of Medical Image (KIAMI) Asan Medical Centre University of Ulsan College of Medicine Seoul, Korea [email protected] Lack of Quality Management Hits Patients In 2000, changes in the national medical reimbursement system allowed the rate of self-refer...

Features

Author Prof.Alan Jackson Professor of Radiology Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering The Medical School Manchester, UK [email protected] The decline of candidates for academic training, the resultant The decline of candidates for academic training, the resultant lack of published studies and dearth of dedicated funding sources have led academic radiology in the UK to be...

Slow Adoption and Political Decisions Curb Growth Author Dr Anthony Stevens Medical Options Ltd. London, UK [email protected] With any technology that has sat on the shelf for a long time, a rise in sales is often viewed with some skepticism. Is this a false dawn, a blip only to be followed by a downturn? PET has taken a very long time to go from a promising research tool to everyday...

Author Thomas J. Kroencke Department of Radiology Humboldt University Medical School Campus Charité Mitte Berlin, Germany Interventional radiologists play as important a role in post-procedural processes as they do during pre-procedure evaluation and the intervention itself. Patients consider the IR as their treating physician and expect to receive post-procedure care and assurance during...

My Opinion

Interviewee Dr Rene Van Tiggelen Curator Belgian Museum of Radiology Brussels, Belgium [email protected] _ Why did You Decide to Launch a Museum of Radiology, and What were the Challenges in Doing So? I am also a great admirer of Professor Röntgen’s, who did not take out any patent for his discovery and in 1901, after being awarded the first Nobel Prize of Physics, reassigned its...

Country Focus

Author Margus Ulst Member of the Executive Board Tartu University Hospital Tartu, Estonia [email protected] One of three Baltic states, Estonia covers an area of 45,227km2, making it slightly bigger than Holland but with a population density ten times less. Estonia's population (1.34 million in 2006), has fallen by 13% since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its subsequent indepen...

Author Dr Pilvi Ilves Associate Professor/Docent of Radiology Department of Radiology Faculty of Medicine The University of Tartu Tartu, Estonia [email protected] The University of Tartu, founded in 1632 is a national university in Estonia uniting different branches of science.The Faculty of Medicine in the University of Tartu is the only faculty for medical education in Estoni...

Author Mare Lintrop Department of Radiology Tartu University Hospital Tartu, Estonia [email protected] The majority of physicians working in Estonia are graduates from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tartu. Until the mid-1970s, it was necessary to complete a full six years of studies in order to be an authorised medical practitioner. Following this training, a few postgra...


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