Veterans Facing Significant Challenges Accessing Radiology Services, VA Watchdog Says
A VA Office of the Inspector General review found that 13 of 15 sampled radiology clinics lack essential call‑tracking data, rendering nearly 338,000 radiology‑related calls unmonitored. The missing data hampers the department’s ability to gauge response times, leading to delays and frustration for veterans seeking critical imaging. Only 19 of 49 clinics reported plans to upgrade their phone‑system infrastructure, while seven have no remediation strategy. The OIG will issue a full report later this year, highlighting systemic gaps in veteran access to specialty care.
Anthem Expanding Policy that Punishes Hospitals Who Use Out-of-Network Radiologists
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, operating as Elevance Health, is extending its "non‑participating care providers" policy to California, marking the 12th state to face a 10% administrative penalty on hospital claims that involve out‑of‑network radiologists. The policy, first rolled...
Experts Develop First-of-Its-Kind Fully Robotic MRI-Compatible System for Neurosurgery
Researchers at Children’s National Hospital have unveiled BrainBot, the first fully MRI‑compatible robotic system designed for neurosurgery. The air‑powered platform delivers millimetric accuracy while allowing surgeons to image and intervene simultaneously inside the scanner. Backed by a $2 million NIH grant,...
FDA Issues ‘High Risk’ Safety Alert for Radiology Device After 5 Serious Injuries
The FDA issued a high‑risk safety alert for Erbe USA’s flexible cryoprobes used in interventional radiology. The devices can rupture during activation because of insufficient adhesive, producing loud sounds that may cause tinnitus, temporary or permanent hearing loss, and burns....
LucidHealth Rebrands Its Teleradiology Services Division
LucidHealth announced it will rename its teleradiology services division to Lucid Teleradiology, aiming to boost brand visibility and clarify its service offering. The change coincides with appointing Dr. David West as practice president, reinforcing physician leadership. The division currently employs...
Standardized Reporting Templates Reduce Residents' On-Call Turnaround Times
A recent study in Emergency Radiology shows that standardized reporting templates significantly speed up on‑call radiology residents’ preliminary interpretations of after‑hours spinal MRIs. Average turnaround time fell from 54 to 47 minutes, and the incidence of delays exceeding 75 minutes...
Medical Malpractice and AI: Jurors React Differently Depending on How Radiologists Utilize the Technology
A mock‑trial study published in Nature Health examined how jurors assign liability when radiologists use AI in interpreting CT scans. When AI flagged a brain bleed and the radiologist reviewed the image only once, 75% of jurors held the radiologist...
FDA Clears New Formulation of Lantheus' PSMA Imaging Agent
The FDA has cleared Pylarify TruVu, a reformulated version of Lantheus’ PSMA‑targeting radiopharmaceutical piflufolastat F‑18. The new formulation improves stability at higher radioactive concentrations, enabling larger batch production and broader distribution. Lantheus plans a Q4 2026 commercial launch with a rolling geographic...
Radiology Residency Costs Rising, Posing a Potential Barrier to Entering Profession
A new study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology shows radiology residency costs are climbing again after a pandemic‑induced dip. Diagnostic radiology applicants now spend about $3,800 on average, a 65% increase from the 2021‑2022 low, while...
Alabama Passes Legislation Requiring Insurers to Cover Supplemental Breast Imaging
Alabama enacted House Bill 300, requiring insurers to cover medically necessary supplemental breast imaging—contrast‑enhanced mammography, ultrasounds, and MRIs—without patient cost‑sharing. The law, signed by Gov. Kay Ivey on March 5, joins roughly 30 states that have passed similar mandates. Advocacy groups,...
RBMA Shares Concerns over Major Medicaid Cut Impacts
RBMA warned that upcoming federal Medicaid cuts could strip millions of coverage, especially in rural areas where balanced‑budget rules force states to trim enrollment or provider payments. The Congressional Budget Office projects 11.8 million loss of insurance, heightening financial strain on...
Radiology Experts Develop Practical Framework for Evaluating AI Models Before Purchasing
Stanford and Rad Partners introduced a practical framework for pre‑deployment evaluation of radiology AI models. The method assigns weighted scores to attributes such as task tediousness, miss likelihood, and clinical impact, and was applied to 13 vendor models across nearly...
Sectra to Acquire Oxipit
Sectra is finalising the acquisition of Oxipit, a specialist in AI‑driven medical imaging solutions. Oxipit’s flagship ChestLink, the first CE Class 2B‑certified autonomous chest‑X‑ray analysis tool, will be integrated into Sectra’s Imaging IT portfolio. The cash‑financed deal includes milestone‑based contingencies and...
AI-Enabled Lesion Quantification Tool Earns New CPT Code
The American Medical Association has granted a Category 3 CPT code (X567T) to AIQ Solutions’ TRAQinform IQ, an AI‑enabled lesion quantification platform cleared by the FDA in 2018. The tool analyzes changes in lesion size and metabolic activity, providing clinicians with more...
Company Seeks to Become a ‘Leader in Interventional Radiology’ with Recent Acquisition
Quantum Surgical, a French robotics and AI specialist, has acquired Miami‑based NeuWave Medical from Johnson & Johnson, creating the Precision IO Group. The combined entity merges Quantum’s Epione platform for robotic‑assisted tumor ablation with NeuWave’s market‑leading microwave ablation devices used...
FDA Clears Ultrasound AI Tool for Accurate Delivery-Date Prediction
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted De Novo clearance to Ultrasound AI’s Delivery Date AI, a cloud‑based software‑as‑a‑medical‑device that predicts a pregnant woman's delivery date using only standard ultrasound images. The model was trained on more than one million...
One PSMA Agent Outshines Competitors at Detecting Prostate Cancer Recurrence
A head‑to‑head study of 55 post‑prostatectomy patients compared two FDA‑cleared PSMA PET agents, Posluma (flotufolastat F‑18) and Pylarify (piflufolastat F‑18). Posluma demonstrated markedly lower bladder radioactivity, with a median bladder SUV of 10.9 versus 29 for Pylarify. This reduction translated into higher...
Ultrasound Isn't Cutting It for Diagnosing Pediatric Appendicitis, New Data Show
A recent analysis in Emergency Radiology compared ultrasound, CT, and rapid MRI for diagnosing pediatric appendicitis. Ultrasound was nondiagnostic in over half the cases, delivering only 65.3% sensitivity, while rapid MRI achieved 96‑97% sensitivity and 98% specificity. Although ultrasound resulted...
Radiology Artificial Intelligence Firm Asks FDA to Exempt Certain Devices From Premarket Review
Harrison.ai filed a citizen petition asking the FDA to grant optional pre‑market exemption for radiology computer‑aided detection (CAD) devices, allowing manufacturers with an existing cleared product to launch similar tools without a new 510(k). The agency must issue a rapid...
Nuclear Medicine Firm Shine Technologies Raises $240M
Shine Technologies announced a $240 million financing round led by Patrick Soon‑Shiong’s NantWorks, bringing its total capital raised to over $1 billion. The infusion will accelerate the company’s commercial fusion initiatives and expand its Lu‑177 isotope production, a cornerstone of targeted cancer...
American College of Radiology Urges HHS to Address ‘Unsustainable’ AI Payment Policy
The American College of Radiology (ACR) has urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to overhaul its AI reimbursement framework, labeling the current policy unsustainable. In a February 19 letter, ACR highlighted that without payment models tied to...
RadNet Earns European Certification for Solution that Allows Technologists to Control Scanners Remotely
RadNet’s TechLive remote‑scanning platform earned European CE certification, extending its vendor‑agnostic, multimodality control to EU hospitals. The solution, already cleared in the U.S., lets technologists operate MR, CT, PET/CT and ultrasound machines from off‑site consoles. RadNet reports a 42% drop...
Radiopharmaceutical Targeted Toward Treatment-Resistant Cancer Put on FDA's Fast Track
Aktis Oncology announced that its investigational radiopharmaceutical AKY-1189 has earned FDA Fast Track designation. The drug targets Nectin‑4, present in 80‑90 % of urothelial cancers, and delivers the alpha‑emitter actinium‑225 directly to tumors. AKY-1189 is in a Phase 1b trial covering urothelial,...
MRI Safety Guidelines May Fall Short for Patients with Implanted Electrode Cuffs
University of Houston researchers warn that implanted nerve electrode cuffs can be unintentionally activated during MRI scans. Simulations show fast‑switching gradient fields and RF‑induced heating lower activation thresholds, sometimes below peripheral nerve stimulation limits. The findings suggest existing MRI‑conditional guidelines...
Collaboration at a Crossroads: 5 Ways Clinicians and IT Teams Can Work Better with Vendors
The article outlines five practical steps for clinicians and IT teams to improve collaboration with healthcare vendors, from early stakeholder involvement to shared success metrics, clear roadmaps, dedicated onboarding managers, and comprehensive training. It stresses the growing role of IT...
FDA Picks Radiologist to Fill Key AI-Related Role
The FDA has appointed Dr. Jeffrey Abramson, a veteran radiologist with extensive AI and health‑policy experience, to a senior role within its Digital Health Center of Excellence. The move comes as the agency shifts toward a more hands‑off regulatory stance...
University of Iowa Proposes $12M Radiology Department Renovation
The University of Iowa Health Care has proposed a $12 million renovation of its downtown radiology department. The plan replaces end‑of‑life CT and nuclear medicine scanners and adds two new CT units plus a cardiac camera. The upgrade targets faster patient...
SIIM Offers Opportunity for Imaging Information Champions
SIIM is expanding its educational offerings to cultivate imaging informatics champions, providing training, mentorship, and a new virtual hospital sandbox for safe IT practice. The society’s partnership with RSNA has produced a National Imaging Informatics Course, creating a standardized pathway...
AI Bolsters Breast Radiologists’ Cancer Detection Rate, Real World Study Finds
A multi‑center real‑world study of over 100,000 breast imaging exams found that adding iCAD’s AI tool to digital breast tomosynthesis increased cancer detection rates without raising recall rates. Detection of invasive cancers rose 26%, while overall cancer detection per 1,000...
5 Barriers to AI Adoption in Pediatric Cancer Imaging
A recent editorial outlines five major barriers that keep artificial intelligence from scaling in pediatric cancer imaging. The rarity of childhood cancers and the resulting scarcity of imaging data limit deep‑learning model training. Data are fragmented across hundreds of specialized...
Noted North Carolina Private Radiology Practice Experiences Data Breach
Triad Radiology Associates, a 50‑year‑old North Carolina imaging practice, disclosed a data breach affecting roughly 11,000 patients. The intrusion, detected in February, likely occurred between late July and September and exposed names, addresses, Social Security numbers and bank account details....
Large Language Model Reads Radiologists' Notes to Flag Patients for Follow-Up Imaging
Researchers at Parkland Health created an AI‑powered tool that leverages a pre‑trained large language model to read radiologists' free‑text notes and automatically flag patients needing follow‑up imaging. In testing on 130,000 studies, the model identified 97% of imaging recommendations and...
FDA Approves Expanded Use of Gadolinium-Based Imaging Agent From Guerbet
The U.S. FDA has approved an expanded label for Guerbet’s gadolinium‑based contrast agent Elucirem (gadopiclenol), allowing its use in infants and children under two years, including term neonates. The agent delivers high‑relaxivity imaging with less than half the gadolinium dose...
Combining PET and MRI Data May Be Key to Differentiating New Type of Dementia
Researchers have demonstrated that combining 18F‑FDG PET with high‑resolution MRI can reliably separate limbic‑predominant age‑related TDP‑43 encephalopathy (LATE) from Alzheimer’s disease in living patients. By creating stereotactic surface projection PET templates from autopsy‑confirmed cases and integrating MRI volumetry, the team...
GE HealthCare Nabs 3 Notable MRI FDA Clearances
GE HealthCare announced FDA clearance for three next‑generation MRI products: the 1.5‑T Signa Sprint with Freelium, the 3‑T Signa Bolt, and the AI‑driven workflow platform Signa One. The Sprint uses a helium‑free magnet that consumes less than 1 % of traditional coolant, while the...
Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Use Has Increased 2,000% Among Medicare Population
Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) utilization among Medicare beneficiaries surged 2,000% between 2013 and 2023, climbing from 529 to 12,395 IV administrations. The study identified a 37% compound annual growth rate, with diagnostic and interventional radiology delivering 45.2% of services and nuclear...
'Revolutionary' Mobile Imaging Pilot Program Excels at Preventing Unnecessary ED Visits
A pilot program in Ashford, England uses portable Fuji Xair imaging at patients' homes after falls. A radiographer and an advanced paramedic review 999 calls, travel to the scene, capture X‑rays and transmit them instantly to a hospital for interpretation....
Low-Value X-Ray Imaging for Facial Trauma Still Prevalent, Despite CT’s Superiority
A new JAMA Network Open study of 281,000 U.S. facial‑trauma patients shows that 26% still receive plain X‑ray as the first imaging test, despite CT being the gold‑standard for fracture detection. Use of low‑value radiographs has fallen from 33% in...
Timing Is Critical when Using Ultrasound for Pediatric UTI Cases
New research from the Advocate Aurora Research Institute suggests that the timing of renal and bladder ultrasounds in hospitalized infants and young children with febrile urinary tract infections (UTIs) significantly affects diagnostic accuracy. Ultrasounds performed within 24 hours of the last...
Radiologists Urge Cigna to Rescind Coverage Restriction for Key Imaging Procedure
Radiology societies, led by the Society of Interventional Radiology, have asked Cigna to reverse policy 0539, which labels implantable peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) for chronic pain as medically unnecessary. The groups cite robust randomized trials, FDA clearance, and a favorable...
