As summer winds down, the school year rapidly approaches. Hopefully you've taken a vacation that gave you time to replenish your batteries and approach the rest of the year with new-found vigor. With the fall season comes a large number of educational conferences for sonography professionals. In addition to providing continuing medical education ...

  As I mentioned in my previous column, the 20th anniversary of our magazine got me reminiscing about the old days in nuclear medicine. Of course, I only go back to 1984, so some of the things I have heard about were gone by the time I started. For instance, I have heard from other technologists that with early lung scans using xenon, the ...

I recently received the brochure and registration materials for the 2008 Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound's Annual Meeting. I was somewhat surprised to have received the brochure, because historically the SRU has generally not been very receptive to non-radiologists. In fact, according to the SRU website, http://www.sru.org/, the Society is ...

Those of you who are, like me, former members of the flower generation, may remember the song ''Where Have all the Flowers Gone?'' It started as a war protest song, written by Pete Seger, and was recorded by several folk groups such as the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary. It popped into my mind when we took a ...

  There is an old saying that a coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies but once. In today's world, however, the media is often responsible for bringing on a thousand fears of death by sensationalizing any slight possibility of risk. If you pay attention to all the fears broadcast in the news, you will find you cannot do anything ...

  Both the ACR and the SNM are celebrating the passage of H. R. 6331, the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. Both houses of Congress garnered the necessary majorities to override a presidential veto of the act. The House overrode the veto by a margin of 383-41, while the tally in the Senate was 70-26. The bill ...

  TV shows like House, which show physicians yelling at subordinates and ignoring their advice may have to adjust their scripts, now that the Joint Commission is taking on bad behavior in hospitals. According to a WebMD report: ''The Joint Commission's new standards -- which go into effect on Jan. 1, 2009 -- require hospitals and other ...

I recently received the results of the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography's 2008 Sonographer Salary and Benefits Survey. Every few years the SDMS does a survey and provides its membership with the results---it's a nice benefit of being an SDMS member. The results contained in the 87-page survey are rather detailed with data provided ...

What is D2B? While it sounds like a new singing group, it's actually a new program launched by the American College of Cardiology. Its purpose is to save time-and lives-by reducing door-to-balloon time in hospitals that do emergency PCI procedures on people with STEMI ( ST elevated M.I.), by reducing door-to-balloon time to 90 minutes. This ...

The other day I was talking to Amy Shaw, associte director of public relations at the SNM, and she told me that SNMTS and United Blood Services will come together to be ''Blood Heroes'' by hosting a blood drive during SNM's 55th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. According to Shaw, the Technologist Section of SNM will host the drive on ...