Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
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Accurately staging patients with lung cancer is important in determining treatment options and prognoses. Staging allows the distinction of patients who are candidates for surgical resection from those with inoperable disease who may be treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. ⋯ Recently, PET/CT, the integration of the functional data of PET with the anatomic data of CT, has emerged as a modality to potentially change the way patients are evaluated. This article reviews current recommendations regarding the staging of patients with NSCLC and addresses the role of PET/CT.
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How should academic radiology departments be governed? This question has rarely been directly addressed in the radiology literature. The dominant model of administration in present-day academic departments differs from that typically seen in private group practices. ⋯ This article considers arguments for and against "top-down" governance in academia. The rationale supporting this form of governance is weak, and the best evidence from the fields of management and organizational behavior suggests it may in fact be detrimental.
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The effect on efficiency of patient care in a busy academic interventional radiology practice was studied by the analysis of procedure times both before and after the implementation of a computerized interactive daily schedule. Procedure start and end times were retrospectively collected from the department's quality assurance database for two identical 6-month periods, representing the time before and after the deployment of the software. The delay in the start of the first case, the time between cases, and the time required to complete each day's work were compared for the two periods. ⋯ The use of a computerized interactive daily schedule has a positive effect on departmental efficiency by allowing more cases to be performed without lengthening the workday.