Together with physicians, other research groups, and industry partners, Fraunhofer MEVIS is developing software to optimize radiation therapy. The fifth clinical workshop to evaluate this software took place in Bremen on Feb. 5-6.

New research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine reveals a high value for scans which could lead to future change of reimbursement policies for follow-up positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) studies in lung cancer. The study, featured in the February 2015 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, establishes the value of fourth and subsequent follow-up PET/CT scans in clinical assessment and management change in patients with the disease.

The Mevion S250 proton therapy system has become the first proton therapy system to receive a medical device license from Health Canada, the federal department responsible for public health, and is now approved to be installed at cancer facilities across the country.

A recently completed National Institutes of Health-funded trial confirms the efficacy of blood flow measurement technology from VasSol Inc. to predict the possibility of repeated stroke in at-risk individuals.

At the 2015 annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Carestream will demostrate its flexible Clinical Collaboration Platform, which now offers a new module to tag clinical data files and bring them into the workflow. These new capabilities build upon Carestream’s fully featured vendor neutral archive (VNA) architecture.

Accuray Inc. announced that the first TomoTherapy System in Latin America dedicated solely to the treatment of breast cancer is now operational at FUCAM (Fundacion de Cancer de Mama) in Mexico City. More than 120 women have been treated with the radiation-therapy technology since the center began using it more than two months ago.

Three out of five healthcare IT professionals believe that government mandates are having a negative effect on their industry, according to a study conducted by Peak 10, a national information technology (IT) infrastructure and cloud services provider. The majority (94 percent) also noted that complying with regulations influences IT strategy and decision-making. With rare exception, respondents claimed they lack the expertise necessary to navigate the maze of government regulations.

Varian Medical Systems announced that it has been selected to equip and service a new national proton therapy center in Aarhus, Denmark, with the Varian ProBeam proton therapy system. Under a completed public tender, Varian was selected to provide equipment, software and service to operate a four-room center for up to an estimated $70 million. Varian expects to conclude and sign the contract and book the equipment and software portion of the order in March.