November 2009

InPractice Insight is your easy-to-read monthly source for ARRS news, original articles, updates on membership and education, and the advanced research and practical information you need from our peer-reviewed journal and member magazine to enhance your practice. With all this plus highlights from ARRS sites, including WomensImagingOnline and PQI Connect, we'll keep you up-to-date on what's going on in ARRS and around the specialty.

Enhancing Your Practice
This is an exciting time to be a radiologist and an ARRS member. Your ARRS membership ensures that you continue to benefit from all the advantages ARRS offers. And the ACR-ARRS alliance provides unparalleled opportunities and prospects for new and expanded offerings. Read more about member benefits from President Ella A. Kazerooni, M.D.

Q&A With the Expert
As technical developments in medical imaging increase, researchers constantly evaluate the differences in modality systems, including MRI. In this month's Inside View, Sanaz A. Jansen, Ph.D., discusses the surprising results of a study on the kinetic curves of malignant breast lesions across MRI systems.

ARRS Updates and News

Women's Imaging Online
The critical field of women's imaging has its own unique challenges, especially in the quest to serve low-income populations. Together, the ARRS and the ACR can provide you with educational programs and ideas for special incentives to help your facility achieve success.

Practice Quality Improvement
Quality is a key buzzword these days, so turn to PQI Connect, an easy-to-navigate site with useful links, information, and news. The site also includes the ARRS' latest PQI template to assist you in meeting the ABR MOC requirements for a PQI project.

A Patient-Centered Approach
Overutilization has become a target for government and other payer interventions to cut costs. But when should imaging be used? One idea that will help answer that question, says C. Craig Blackmore, M.D., M.P.H., is evidence-based medicine.

“We should focus not on just interpretation [of images], but really on how imaging should be used to improve patient care,” says Blackmore.

Blackmore, from the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, is a presenter and co-director of the categorical course during the 2010 annual meeting, Practical Approaches to Common Clinical Conditions: Efficient Imaging (PAC3E).

One approach to efficient imaging, he says, is to use evidence-based medicine to “drill down on what we really know about imaging and determine when it should be used and how.”

First, he says, review the evidence available and make specific recommendations on how to use imaging in a manner best for patients. “One way to look at it is to look at imaging’s effect on patients. In radiology, you traditionally look at how good it is at diagnosing disease,” says Blackmore. “We want to improve patients’ health, so accuracy is important, but we need to go beyond that and look at patient outcomes.

“In other words, it’s not enough to just identify disease; we need to improve the health of patients. Identifying disease is a step in the right direction, but we also need to make sure that our imaging is actually leading — or allowing — patients to live longer and healthier lives.”

Publications Highlights

InPractice: What Shape Will Your Retirement Take?
The radiology profession is growing grayer, with an estimated 39 percent of radiologists 55 years of age or older. Whether you're facing retirement soon or just dreaming about it, it's never too early to get your financial house in order to ensure a smooth retirement transition. Find out more in the Fall issue.

AJR: CT-Guided Core Biopsy of Lung Lesions: A Primer
In this pictorial essay, I-Chen Tsai, M.D., and other authors bring you a primer on CT-guided core biopsy for lung lesions. Read the details and follow along with images of the authors' performing CT-guided lung biopsy of a 1.5-cm right apical lung nodule.

ACR Bulletin: RBMs: Benefit or Burden?
Joint guidelines from the ACR and RBMA help you deal with the complex issues involved in working with RBMs and present better alternatives. To read more, flip to p. 20 of the October issue.

JACR: Self-Referral of Imaging and Increased Utilization: Some Practical Perspectives on Tackling the Dilemma
CMS continues to have concerns with self-referral of imaging but is unlikely to amend Stark rules soon to address them. Read the free article online from the November issue.

Editor's note: ARRS membership includes subscriptions to InPractice and the AJR; the JACR and the ACR Bulletin are valuable benefits of ACR membership.

Spotlight on Education

Learning on the Go
ARRS' virtual symposia put you in touch with renowned experts without leaving your home or office. Take a look at these upcoming topics and register today.
Nov. 18, 2009, MRI of the Shoulder
Dec. 17, 2009, PET in Breast Malignancy

Save the Date! ARRS Annual Meeting
We received 1,505 abstract submissions for the 2010 ARRS Annual Meeting in San Diego, May 2-7, an increase of 34 percent from last year. Of the total entries, 403 are oral presentations, an increase of 7 percent. Annual meeting registration opens Dec. 15 on the ARRS Web site. Registration brochures will be available at the upcoming RSNA meeting.

A Practical Approach to Cardiac CT Angiography
Master CT angiography of the heart and coronary arteries with the help of Course Directors James A. Brink, M.D., and Sanjeev Bhalla, M.D., in the new Cardiac CT Angiography: A Practical Approach, held Feb. 5-6, 2010, in Phoenix.

ARRS Categorical Course: Setting the PAC(3)E of Imaging
In conjunction with the ARRS annual meeting, the new categorical course, Practical Approaches to Common Clinical Conditions: Efficient Imaging (PAC(3)E), will help you gain an understanding of practical approaches for appropriate use of imaging in the wide spectrum of diseases and disorders.

Visit Us at RSNA
Be sure and stop by the ARRS booth (South Building, Hall A, #2800) while attending the RSNA annual meeting. Say hello to colleagues and review the latest member products and services.

Your ARRS Membership
Be sure to keep your membership current so you have continuous access to valuable benefits, such as the AJR and AJR Integrative Imaging, as well as free CME and SAM opportunities and the best pricing on upcoming ARRS symposia and the ARRS 2010 annual meeting.

We would also like to remind you of our complimentary in-training memberships for residents and fellows throughout the world. Please encourage your in-training colleagues to join the ARRS by completing an online membership application. 

  

Comments on  InPractice Insight?
E-mail Raina Keefer, editor at rkeefer@acr-arrs.org.