December 20, 2011 — The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) acknowledged in a recent statement that the risks associated with medical imaging and any medical procedure must be balanced with its benefits. Alarmist and sensational speculation about the risk of low-dose radiation exposure may cause patients to refuse these life-saving medical tests.

December 19, 2011 — KLAS has recognized DR Systems and its combined Unity RIS-CVIS-PACS platform as the No. 1 ranked overall PACS vendor and product. The recognition came in KLAS’s 2011 Top 20: Best in KLAS Awards - Software & Services Report.

December 19, 2011 – The role of cardiovascular ultrasound in the catheterization laboratory has never been appreciated more than it is today. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) allows a multidisciplinary team of interventionalists and echocardiographers to replace a patient's diseased aortic valve without traditional open-heart surgery, enabling a new and potentially life-saving method of treatment for inoperable patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis.

December 16, 2011 — A new report from market research firm IMV Medical Information Division reveals the growth rate for interventional procedures being performed in U.S. angiography labs has fallen to 1 percent annually. Fewer sites are buying brand-new systems, and in coming years hospitals most likely will focus on replacing existing systems.

December 16, 2011 — Positron Corp. announced this week that on Dec. 12, 2011, its Attrius & Attrius L positron emission tomography (PET) scanners received approval for sale in Canada.

December 15, 2011 – Diablo Valley Oncology, an oncology practice in the San Francisco East Bay, recently administered its first breast intraoperative radiation treatment (IORT) using the Xoft Axxent eBx electronic brachytherapy system at Aspen Surgical in Walnut Creek.

December 15, 2011 – McKesson today announced the successful deployment of its market-leading medical imaging solution at the first four of 35 hospitals in Ireland as part of an exclusive partnership with the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE). Beaumont Hospital, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Sligo General Hospital and Waterford Regional Hospital are among the first to roll out McKesson's Horizon Medical Imaging picture archiving communications system (PACS) and radiology imaging system (RIS) as part of HSE's National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) initiative.