The EMR and other investments in IT infrastructure represent a winning scenario for office-based cardiology practices. As practices transition toward an EMR, they need to look beyond software and consider questions about hardware and staffing, too. Insiders can provide a wealth of information about the benefits and do’s and don’ts of IT infrastructure and steer their colleagues toward a smooth implementation.

In 2007, the number of electronic medical record system installs jumped 22 percent over the previous year. Approximately one-third of U.S. physicians now have an EMR system, while cardiology EMR adoption is estimated to be 8 to 9 percent, ranking high among specialties, according to the Medical Records Institute

With the growing volume and size of imaging studies, disaster recovery is a big job for most organizations to manage. Careful, thorough planning and good vendor relationships can go a long way in helping everyone involved sleep better at night.

Quality initiatives abound in healthcare today. One way to provide consistently better care to patients and to keep a healthy bottom line is through evidence-based medicine. 

NovaRad has secured two new PACS contracts in the Carolinas, bringingthe total NovaRad installs in South Carolina to five and in NorthCarolina, eight.

Emageon, an enterprise medical information technology systems company for hospitals and healthcare networks, has signed a multi-year contract with Novation, the contracting services company of VHA, the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) and Provista, to supply cardiovascular PACS products & services.

Departmental cardiovascular information systems (CVIS) have emerged andcombined with a cardiology PACS have become the leading softwarefeature in modern cardiology departments, according to a new reportfrom the San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm Frost &Sullivan.

St. James Healthcare in Butte, Mont., has installed a COR Analyzer fromRcadia Medical Imaging, a developer of patented computer-aideddiagnostic software.