Radiology and the Heart

February 16, 2011 | Feature

Cardiology and radiology: Are they two specialties working in tandem for optimal patient care or two opposing armies in a turf battle? The answer, of course, is complicated, and can’t be approached without an acknowledgement of the ground already ceded to cardiology.

In today’s hospitals,... Read More »

The Road to Acceptance: CCTA for Chest Pain in the ED

July 07, 2010 | Feature

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) could be radiology’s most notorious underperformer. As the number of CT detectors increased from one to 256 and beyond, as the resulting images showed ever more exquisite detail of the chambers and vessels of the heart, CCTA nonetheless failed to overcome politics, sluggish reimbursement, and... Read More »

The CCTA Playbook: A Guide to Coding, Reimbursement, and Operations

March 01, 2009 | Feature

A compendium of the business intelligence required to launch a CCTA service

In the United States, unspecified chest pain is the second most common reason for an emergency-department visit. Each year, 5 million to 8 million patients present to the emergency department with chest pain; in 2004, more than 6 million... Read More »

CCTA Standards and Turf

March 01, 2009 | NONE

Turf questions have always surrounded the provision and interpretation of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) studies. Who should read these studies? Cardiologists and radiologists are unlikely to exclude each other from interpreting these studies, but the application of standards may help both specialties ensure an emphasis on appropriate training and... Read More »

Adding a CCTA Program: Economic Benefits of Outsourcing

January 15, 2009 | RadBrand Builder

Adding a coronary CT angiography (CCTA) program to your emergency department can help save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by reducing unnecessary admissions and mitigating the medicolegal expenses resulting from misdiagnoses. The upfront equipment costs are daunting, however, as are ongoing expenses in the form of both... Read More »

ACR White Paper: CCTA Structured Reporting

October 16, 2008 | Reading Room

A group of luminary practitioners of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) penned a white paper1 to guide readers of CCTA in structured reporting for the modality. Citing referrer ease of use and the ability to improve quality through consistency, the authors discuss the primary elements of a structured report and... Read More »

CCTA: Radiology Prepares

September 01, 2008 | Feature

Though expertise and reimbursement lag, many radiology practices gear up to perform their share of a potential 20 million procedures a year

The potential market for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) continues to grow as new CT scanners offer improved visualization of the coronary arteries and reduced radiation exposure.... Read More »

Coronary MR Angiography: Can It Compete With Multidetector CT?

June 12, 2008 | Reading Room

Just five years ago, the thought of cardiac cross-sectional imaging turned immediately toward the potential of MRI for evaluation of the heart. Equipment manufacturers provided new MRI scanners with fast gradients for this purpose and developed new pulse sequences. Advanced 3D workstations provided new software for analysis of cardiac... Read More »

The Role of CCTA in Primary Care

May 15, 2008 | Reading Room

Primary care physicians are increasingly referring patients for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) to provide accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) and earlier disease management for their patients. Most practitioners recognize the benefits of CCTA for those who are at risk of coronary disease, as well as for patients... Read More »

CCTA: The Road to Acceptance

May 15, 2008 | RadBrand Builder

The advancement of imaging technology is invariably followed by a host of related challenges. Many of these challenges are questions raised by payors and answered by various medical associations in an effort to ensure a seamless transition from research and development to practical use. Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) has... Read More »

Optimizing Coronary CTA Workflow: How We Do It

February 16, 2008 | The Virtuoso

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) provides an accurate evaluation of coronary-artery disease and coronary-artery anomalies, and it gives us the ability to evaluate the cardiac chambers, myocardium, and valves. Effective deployment of CCTA service requires optimization of workflow to make this procedure cost effective and practical.

After more... Read More »

Share and Share Alike? Split Interpretations Pose a Challenge to Radiologists.

October 15, 2007 | Think Tank

As if radiologists were not facing sufficient challenges of late, they now are seeing increasing interest from cardiologists seeking to promote the sharing of certain studies. In some hospital settings, the cardiologists ask for an exception to the radiologists’ exclusive contract, so that the cardiologists can serve as additional... Read More »