The Delaware Department of Insurance has reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware violated state law by inappropriately denying authorization for cardiac nuclear imaging exams, part of the payors policy aimed at driving down costs.

PET imaging plays an important role in the assessment of myocardial blood flow and can guide interventions for preventing the development of future cardiovascular events. For instance, researchers have used PET with sympathetic stress for risk assessment of coronary endothelial function--the earliest indication for coronary atherosclerosis, according to an article published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.

The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products and Regulatory Agency has issued an alert that nine Philips Healthcare CT scanner beds have the potential to collapse, posing risks to patients undergoing exams.

CHICAGOFusing together surgical and catheter-based procedures in one settinga hybrid labcan cut procedure time, allow for less invasive procedures and produce faster recovery times for patients all while creating a new, innovative business venture for hospitals, according to a presentation yesterday at the annual leadership conference of the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators (ACCA).

Implementation of Canadian Association of Radiology (CAR)-based decision support in a pediatric hospital showed little relevance of the guidelines to clinical cases and even poorer compliance, with physicians admitting that they often blatantly cheated to avoid using the program, according to a study published in the April edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., employs a web-based technology that helps patients understand their risks with an upcoming cath lab procedure. The technology executes the American College of Cardiologys (ACCs) multivariable risk prediction models with patient-specific data so that individualized estimates of outcomes can be generated within the routine flow of clinical care and used to support shared medical decision making.

The explosion of data that needs to be collected, stored and analyzed requires a greater scrutiny of the security of that information along the continuum of care. As cardiology practices and departments align their cardiovascular information systems (CVIS) and cardiology PACS (C-PACS) with greater accessibility throughout the enterprise, they will need to work with IT and other specialties to guarantee the security of their patient information.

Spectrum Dynamics has shipped and installed its second D-SPECT cardiac imaging system using Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) nuclear imaging modules from a new supplier, Redlen Technologies.