February 24, 2012 — For the first time in years, information technology (IT) leaders at healthcare organizations did not identify a lack of financial support for IT as an obstacle to implementation; instead, concerns about staffing resources was cited as the key barrier.

February 23, 2012 — Hitachi Ltd. announced that it entered into an agreement with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to provide its proton beam therapy (PBT) system. This technology has spot scanning capability for treating certain forms of cancer.

February 22, 2012 — Attendees at the HIMSS 2012 meeting in Las Vegas were given a preview of what will be in the expected proposed rules for Stage 2 meaningful use, certification and standards from officials at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In a recap featured on its website, HIMSS reported that Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, told attendees, “We stayed the course.” He also noted that image viewing will be an option for meaningful use (MU).

February 21, 2012 — On Feb. 22, the first day of the 2012 National Football League Combine, more than 300 top college football players will undergo X-ray imaging exams using an innovative wireless, digital radiography detector from Carestream Health Inc.

February 21, 2012 — Theragenics Corp., a medical device company serving the surgical products and prostate cancer treatment markets, announced that it has purchased Core Oncology’s prostate brachytherapy customer base.

February 21, 2012 — ScImage Inc. announced the development of a unified dashboard to access enterprise-level image-centric health information. For the diverse health enterprise, the new dashboard offers study- and order-centric worklists blended into a single framework, employing exacting new programming and web technologies.