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Peter Seitz and the SOMATOM Force

Exploring the Siemens “booth” at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America is a bit like coming aboard the Starship Enterprise -- a vast vessel with a crew to match. There I found Peter Seitz, ready to show me the spanking new SOMATOM Force, the next generation in Dual Source computed tomography (CT).[read more]

Artis One

Perhaps due to the 510(k) pending regulatory status -- we always want what we cannot immediately have -- the Artis One Angiography System attracted a lot of attention at the Siemens booth at the RSNA annual meeting in Chicago. This new system is currently under review by the FDA and its availability in the U.S. is unknown.[read more]

Dave Fisher, VP of Siemens health policy in North America

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, is a hot topic here at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago -- that is for certain. I sat down with Dave Fisher, vice president of Siemens’ health policy division in North America, to get his take on the controversial health care law.[read more]

Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova

Can radioimmunotherapy (RIT) be effective in helping to find a cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)? Researchers have used RIT to destroy remaining HIV-infected cells in the blood samples of patients treated with antiretroviral therapy, offering the promise of a strategy for curing HIV infection.[read more]

BioPharma Beat with David Davidovic

By now everyone has heard of the very pointed and frustration-toned warning letter that 23andMe received from the F.D.A., which ordered the company to immediately stop selling and marketing their consumer genetic testing service. The question is: Now what?[read more]

Paul Tunnah's PharmaPhorum

An interview I did recently for an organisation conducting some research into the future of social media use by the pharmaceutical industry prompted me to remind them, and myself, that we should not talk about pharma as a single homogenous beast when it comes to such digital engagement.[read more]

MRI brain scan / shutterstock

Using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers have found that soldiers who suffered mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) induced by blast exposure present long-term brain differences, according to a new study of veterans. The research was presented at RSNA 2013 this week.[read more]

Person-Centered Healthcare

Hospitals may have been slow to jump on the social media bandwagon, but it turns out these platforms may actually help to improve patient care. Hospitals across the country are turning to Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and even Pinterest to solicit the advice of patients and their loved ones.[read more]

life insurance decisions

Most of us have family members that will need to take care of our arrangements when we pass on, but what about those of us who have to worry about our family’s financial interests? Here are a few major life insurance questions answered, and how you can make the best decision for your needs.[read more]

marketing a new medical practice / shutterstock

Many primary care physicians feel pressure from urgent care and retail clinics to offer the same speedy, affordable service. But the days of listing yourself in the phone book and affiliating yourself with a local hospital as the basis of your marketing efforts are long gone. Here are some marketing tips for today's medical practice.[read more]

generic drugs / shutterstock

The difference between brand-name and generic prescription drugs is often misunderstood by consumers. It's time for pharmaceutical companies to shed light on the important differences and better educate physicians, pharmacists, and consumers.[read more]

Person-Centered Healthcare

As the recommended number of preventive services offered to patients increases, many physicians struggle to maintain a balance between urgent patient concerns and dedicating the time necessary to address prevention. Electronic patient portals may be the prevention tool of the future.[read more]

DNA map (image: compfight.com)

What is personalized medicine? And why does the FDA think that the age of Star Trek is nigh? According to Science Daily, modern technologies can sequence a human genome in about one week for just $5,000. Some suspect that in the very near future, practically everyone will be able to afford rapid genome sequencing.[read more]

Being a nurse practitioner

Getting your masters degree in nursing opens up new opportunities. Prescribing treatment and medication, diagnosing injuries, managing patient care, and ordering/interpreting diagnostic tests are some of the core abilities that make up the role of nurse practitioners.[read more]

Healthcare organization accreditation / shutterstock

Health industry followers quickly become accustomed to the alphabet soup and acronyms of the academic medicine and healthcare worlds. Little noticed in the academic medicine community since its arrival on the US healthcare scene in September 2008 is “DNV” (Det Norske Veritas or Det Norske Veritas—Healthcare, DNVHC.)[read more]

Payment systems / shutterstock

Thanks to the ACA, from an entrepreneurial perspective, opportunity in the healthcare space is unbelievable. With the increasing patient-loads, healthcare providers will have to find innovative ways to manage patients and the associated costs. How will we take care of this sudden influx of patients?[read more]

Boomer Voice

The threat of having an implanted medical device hacked is so real that large groups of professionals are meeting this month to device ways to prevent cyber-attacks on our bodies. As more Baby Boomers age and need implanted medical devices like defibulators and insulin pumps, experts say they must face these potential vulnerabilities head on.[read more]

Health data at risk? / shutterstock

It's fair to say that HealthCare.gov has been plagued with problems. But recent revelations that critical government security rules were waived, days before the site was due to go live, has led to new concerns about whether personal health data users entered into the site is safe from prying eyes.[read more]

BioPharma Beat

The field of diagnostics is one of the most exciting in medicine and health because of its amazing past, present and future contributions. There are two important trends in diagnostics: predictive diagnostics and diagnostics for precision-medicine; both are based on DNA analytic technologies.[read more]

Autism (Image: Porsche Brosseau)

The MIT Media Lab is working on a type of wristband ANS sensor that could be used by individuals with autism, who have difficulty with speech, or with communicating effectively through speech. This wearable sensor may help scientists to get a better picture of what goes on with autistic individuals on a day-to-day basis.[read more]