News From Around the Web
> The European healthcare IT professional services market is expected to hit $1.93 billion by 2017, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan. The market earned revenues of $1.58 billion in 2011. Announcement
> Fifty-nine percent of hospital CIOs responding to a recent healthsystemCIO.com survey say they accomplished what they set out to accomplish in 2012. Of those CIOs, 77 percent say they were able to do so within a budget. Article
Mobile Health News
> Child immunization efforts in Mozambique are getting a shot in the arm from mobile technology. Mozambique's Department of Health has teamed up with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), a public-private partnership for immunization, to launch a pilot project in about 100 clinics in early 2013 where health workers will test the effectiveness and cost benefits of using mobile phones to communicate with patients. Article
Health Insurance News
> Highmark repeatedly has said that it will change the authorization process for its Physical Medicine Management Program, eventually requiring that its members obtain pre-authorizations if they want to receive more than eight visits worth of physical therapy, occupational therapy and chiropractic service. After receiving negative feedback from affected providers, however, such measures will be postponed for a third time, until April 30. Article
Medical Imaging News
> Seventeen members of the House of Representatives have written a letter to the House leadership expressing their fears that continued cuts in reimbursement rates will reduce access to medical imaging and suppress imaging equipment manufacturing. Article
> A technique called dual-phase cone-beam computed tomography, or DPCBCT, has allowed a team of Johns Hopkins University and Dutch radiologists to use paired CT scans to produce real-time images of liver tumors dying after being injected with cancer-killing drugs. Article
Health Provider News
> In an example of rapid consolidation and its consequences, patients of a group affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center were dismayed to learn that their physicians were no longer present following a sudden ownership takeover by Highmark and West Penn Allegheny Health System. Article
And Finally… No wonder Santa's been on the job for so long. Article