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What the heck is Log4j and why is it a threat to all of us?

"Not another cybersecurity attack?!"

(First, let me preface this blog by stating that as of today, December 22, 2021, no CMS Imaging systems have been impacted by Log4j malware.)

Yes, last week, it became evident that researchers had identified another large-scale cybersecurity issue. This attack was a malware insertion on a Java program named Apache Log4j. Log4j is a free tool used by many software programs to log information in places like your hospital network, personal cloud storage, and, unfortunately, medical equipment and software. The attack itself is being called Log4Shell, and it is set to become the most extensive and worst cybersecurity attack in history.

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Cybersecurity
Dec. 22, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
The Great Supply Chain Calamity

If you live on either coast of our nation and happen to look out to sea, you may see numerous small dots on the horizon. No, those aren't sharks or birds; those are container ships waiting to get into port and unload. Since the start of the pandemic, trans-oceanic shipping has been affected. It started with the consumer hesitancy to visit retail stores and outlets due to fear of COVID-19; the result was a dramatic increase in shopping online, often direct from the manufacturer. It has turned into a nightmare called the Great Supply Chain Calamity for many US industries, and healthcare is no exception.

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Supply Chain
October 27, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Cancer Screenings in the time of COVID

On January 20, 2020, a Washington state resident became the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States. Less than two weeks later, the U.S. declared a national emergency concerning the virus. Cases of the coronavirus continued to rise throughout the United States and the world through the next few months. The first sharp rise of cases in the U.S. occurred between June 9, 2020, and July 20, 2020. During this time, this country experienced a 300% increase in cases.

At this time, most hospitals across the country began to free up resources to deal with the influx of COVID-19 patients. One of the means that they opened up resources was by canceling elective procedures at the hospitals. While this may make sense on the surface, who needs a nose job in the middle of a global pandemic? Many of the general public did not know that included in these elective procedures were routine cancer screenings. Simultaneously, local and state governments began instituting stay-at-home orders, further restricting access to the doctor's offices and other medical facilities.

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Healthcare & COVID 19
September 29, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Radiology Outsourcing: Challenges and Benefits

Some of you who read my writings may say that I find myself in hospitals and urgent care centers too frequently getting x-rays and other imaging scans. And those individuals would be correct! When you have family members that are accident-prone and add an older member of the family, gone are the days of our youth where seeing the inside of a hospital was a once every few year occurrence.

Most recently, we upgraded our semi-regular family outing to the urgent care center for an excursion to the emergency room of our favorite hospital. The family member in question had x-rays taken at the urgent care center but needed a CT scan to diagnose the issue further. So after an hour at the urgent care center, we made our way over to the emergency room.

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Healthcare
August 26, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
TThe Advent of Virtual Radiology

As the threat of COVID rears its ugly head once again to threaten our abilities to visit our favorite restaurants, beaches, and attractions, some cities are starting to reintroduce mask mandates. Most recently, as a response to the Delta Variant, the mayor of Savannah, Georgia, reintroduced mask mandates similar to last winter and early spring, regardless of vaccination status. "I know the question will come - are we effectively punishing those who did the right thing and took the vaccine? And the answer is yes, we probably are," Mayor Van R. Johnson, II said.

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Healthcare & COVID 19
July 27, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Telehealth: Re-Architecting the Realms of Patient Care

Over the past few decades, healthcare, medical research, and clinical treatments have emphasized an overwhelming reliance on technology to design life-altering solutions. The resulting outcomes have helped improve patients' overall quality of life and reduce fatalities for many throughout the world.

During the recent global pandemic, time, communications, and data sharing have altered treatments and saved lives. Outside those types of catastrophic circumstances, the role of telehealth and telemedicine in our daily lives has become far more of an assumption that – with technology - there is an answer to nearly everything, or it is around the corner.

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Healthcare
June 23, 2021
Nick Murillo
0 Comments

A Tale of Two Cities

My apologies to Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

Living in Charleston, SC comes with many advantages. We have a thriving food culture combining a mixture of seafood, African, French, English, and European influences in both casual and fine dining restaurants. We live in a vacation city with many historical and natural attractions that draw over 7 million visitors during an average year. With the College of Charleston founded in 1670 and The Citadel founded in 1842, Charleston offers two of the oldest educational facilities in the country. Charleston offers beautiful sunsets, stunning harbor views, and many beautiful examples of architecture from many periods of American history. When I moved to this city eight years ago, I never considered the healthcare infrastructure with the cornerstones of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Roper St. Francis.

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Rural Healthcare & COVID 19
April 28, 2021
Phil Reichner
2 Comments
COVID-19 Vaccine Shaming

Last month for the first time in almost three years, I did not write my monthly ramblings on the healthcare industry. My excuse was that I had COVID-19. I am one of the almost 30,000,000 people in the United States to contract this virus. With the daily trend dropping significantly from its peak in January, one of the contributing factors is the availability of the vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been a source of relief and hope to most people. To others, it has been a source of caution and speculation. But with more and more people receiving the vaccination, there is a new topic of conversation evolving, "vaccination shaming."

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COVID-19
March 25, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Bedside Imaging during the Days of COVID-19

My brother was hospitalized in January 2020 in New York City with complaints of labored breathing and flu-like symptoms. Though COVID-19 was on the radar internationally, it was not as prevalent a headline in the United States as it would be just three months later. At first, he was sent home with a prescription for Tamiflu® and the advice to cut down on his smoking (yeah, he knows it is a terrible habit.) But after two days, he was back at the hospital with a dangerous pulse oxygen level and was admitted. His transfer to the ICU happened two days later when the standard treatments did not work.

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COVID-19
January 27, 2021
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
45 Million Unprotected Medical Files

As a patient, I don't really think about my medical records being kept confidential. I assume that my general practitioner and the medical facilities that I use will keep that information confidential. Working in the medical industry, I am bound to HIPAA laws, so I understand that releasing medical information to anyone not involved in their care is strictly forbidden. So when I read this week that 45 million medical images, including x-rays and CT scans, were sitting on unprotected servers, I was shocked.

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Cybersecurity
Dec. 18, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
The Patient Rollercoaster Ride of COVID-19

I know, I know you are tired of hearing about COVID-19. But let's face facts, until some undisclosed time in the future, we are all going to have to get used to the idea that COVID-19 is a prevalent part of our lives. From the mandatory face mask policies in the towns and cities across America to temperature taking at your local restaurant to the daily infection numbers that the news loves to promote, COVID-19 is not a simple, easily-dismissed virus. In the United States alone, there have been over 12,500,000 cases diagnosed and over 258,000 deaths. Much derision exists over blame for COVID-19 mortalities, but we can only try our best to take care of ourselves at the end of the day.

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COVID-19
Nov. 24, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
What Exactly is Smishing?

Fishing with a Sandwich?
Smooching a fish?
A great new sushi item?
A new social media platform?

Yeah, I had no idea what this word meant until I told a colleague a story about a weird phone call, text message combination I received last week.

On Monday of last week, I was going about my day when I received a text message from a phone number that I did not have saved in my contacts. Receiving a text message like this is becoming less rare since different software manufacturers started using texts as a multi-factor authentication tool. I also receive text messages from my doctor, bank, veterinarian, and a host of other entities that my wife and I use in our everyday life. Being I was right in the middle of an excellent day-dreaming session (the above image is my workstation view), I decided to finish my thought before looking at the text. As things usually go, thirty seconds later, I had forgotten all about the text message and went on to another item that needed my attention.

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Cybersecurity
Sept. 24, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“CMS

As Labor Day approaches and we all wish for a simpler time of beach trips, one of the things that I will miss the most this upcoming Labor Day weekend is the Blue Angels. My wife's family, a proud Air Force family, would remind me it is the Thunderbirds, not the Blue Angels, of which I should be writing. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and one of the highlights of the long weekend was always the Blue Angels flying over Coney Island Beach. It was always cool as a child to see something move so fast, make so much noise, and fly so close to each other without colliding. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that the precision flying was due to many hours of practice and each pilot knowing what their exact role was in the formation.

The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds spend many hours practicing for their shows, but what most of us don't think about are the countless hours spent rehearsing what to do in the case of an emergency. Each pilot rehearses emergency procedures exhaustively so that their actions are second nature in the event of an emergency. While some of you are inevitably pilots, we can all practice like flyers on how to conduct ourselves in the case of emergency.

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Healthcare
August 27, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Preparing

COVID-19 has lead to dramatic changes in how we live our life. Could you imagine me telling you last year that you would be purchasing multiple facemasks to match different clothing and different styles? How about the idea that most cities in the United States will have been under quarantine for months? Ok, I know this one is hyperlocal, but how about the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays (Major League Baseball - MLB) will not be playing any home games this year in Toronto due to COVID-19, but will be playing them in Pittsburgh instead. Conversely, the Pittsburgh Penguins (National Hockey League - NHL) will not be playing any home games in Pittsburgh due to COVID-19 but will be playing those home games in Toronto.

I remember being in a pre-operative waiting room with a family member who was waiting to have elective surgery when this coronavirus first started to spread. While sitting there, I received a news alert on my phone that the hospital I was in had confirmed it's first three patients that day. Who would have guessed that the fundamental way hospitals would operate would be changing so much?

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COVID-19
July 22, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Walmart

As I have written in a previous blog, Walmart entered the urgent care market earlier this year with locations in Dallas, Georgia, and Calhoun, Georgia. The concept, called 'Walmart Health,' is the next iteration of their previous limited model called 'Walmart Care.' Located within the Walmart store, Walmart Health offers the traditional benefits provided at a primary care provider coupled with the added services of x-ray, EKG, counseling, dental, optical, hearing, and community health services. Additionally, Walmart has retail pharmacies and vision centers located in both Walmart stores.

Based on the success of the first two healthcare centers, Walmart announced the opening of two new Walmart Healths this week. The third facility, located in Loganville, Georgia, opened on June 17, 2020, follows the same template as the first two facilities. The newest facility, located in Springdale, Arkansas, is the first outside of Georgia and will have a smaller footprint and new patient flow. Critically, both new facilities will also continue the practice of upfront pricing. Patients will receive an estimated cost of services, regardless of their insurance status, when booking their appointment. Upfront pricing has been one of the highlights of the consumer experience in the first two facilities.

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Healthcare
June 24, 2020
Phil Reichner
1 Comment
“Would

Phil,
We had some questions concerning the invoice sent on May 5, 2020, for our x-ray equipment. Specifically, we discussed with our salesman that we would receive a discount for the item on line 24 of the invoice. Please view the invoice here.

Thank you,
Jane Doe
XYZ Imaging Center


Looks like a pretty safe email, right? Aside from the name of the person sending it and the name of the imaging center, which I changed to anonymize the email, this looks pretty legitimate. Specifically, it addresses me individually, it is from a known customer, it references x-ray equipment, and the email headers (not shown) were from a real customer that we do business with regularly. So when this email landed in my inbox, I, at first, thought the sender had sent it to one of the other mailboxes that I monitor for the company. My first thought was to forward the email to the sales representative and CC our accounting department. But after seeing that the email was sent directly to me, the marketing manager, the email made me very suspicious.

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Cybersecurity
Emergency Preparedness
May 27, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Are

It wasn't too long ago that I sat at my computer listening to the Opening Day of Baseball's Spring Training and feeling like one of the biggest problems in my world was that another NY Yankee pitcher was going on the Injured List. That was on February 22nd, and though I had heard of the virus that was infecting China, I, like many Americans, paid it no mind. Well fast forward to today, and boy, was I wrong. Many cities across the United States are on lockdown with many others, beginning the measures that are needed to control this pandemic.

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Emergency
Preparedness
March 25,
2020
Phil
Reichner
0
Comments
“Syncing

When I first started writing this blog post, I was going to title it, "Is it Live, or is it Memorex?"™ But then I realized that if I did, I would be at risk of showing my age. For those of you unfamiliar with this iconic Memorex© tagline, it referred to a comparison between the sound quality of a live band or an audio cassette. For this article, the phrase would refer to the difference between synchronous and asynchronous telemedicine.

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Healthcare
Feb. 26, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Walmart

What do all of these brands have in common? Apple, Amazon, Google, and now Walmart.

If you have been reading the blogs here, you will know that Apple, Amazon, and Google have all stepped into the healthcare industry, and now Walmart has opened it's first Urgent Care center.

Named "Walmart Health," this new urgent care facility and is located in Dallas,Georgia, roughly 45 minutes from Atlanta. This new facility is not the limited services "Care Clinics" that Walmart operated in other areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

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Healthcare
Jan. 23, 2020
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Cybersecurity:

It seems that every day, the news media reports on a new cyberattack. Healthcare facilities and government agencies are amongst the most provocative targets for these cyber-criminals. Typically the criminals are hoping to extort a ransom from the victim. But aside from the ransom, the victim is often paying much more than the extorted payment. The Ponemon Institute conducts independent research on data protection and emerging information technologies. Ponemon's 'Cost of Cybercrime Study'* averages the cost of cybercrime at $13,000,000 per organization. This amount reflects a 12% increase from 2018. Healthcare facilities face the additional burden of a HIPAA violation should they suspect a breach of PHI.

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Cybersecurity
Dec. 19, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Project

Well, Big Tech is at it again. I have previously written about Amazon's foray (here and here) into the healthcare industry, but now it is Google's turn. Google has recently partnered with Ascension, the nations send largest healthcare provider, on a project that Google calls "Project Nightingale."(This name comes from Florence Nightingale, not the picture of the beautiful songbird above.)

The partnership offers Ascension access to Google's vaunted cloud infrastructure and the full selection of Google Suite products. What Google gains has the potential for a massive invasion of privacy regarding 50 million patient's personal health information (PHI) across 21 states.

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Healthcare
Nov. 25, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Breast

In October 1985, the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutic division of Imperial Chemical Industries (now AstraZeneca) founded Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since then, many countries around the world mark this month's focus on the awareness, early detection, and treatment of breast cancer.

Many notable programs to support various breast cancer charities have been created and have become part of our everyday life. From the Susan G. Komen Foundation® to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and even your local eatery, all have created promotions to raise money to fight breast cancer. We have all seen the pink ribbons, the walkathons, and the bumper stickers. But how much do we pay attention to the fight when it is not personal?

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Healthcare
Oct. 23, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Amazon,

Earlier this year, I wrote about Amazon stepping into the healthcare industry. As of this week, Amazon has officially taken the next step into the healthcare industry, creating Amazon Care for their Seattle based employees.

This new healthcare plan will offer Amazon employees four unique benefits.

  • Video Care is a visit to a third-party physician from Oasis Medical through the use of the Amazon Care app.
  • Mobile Care, an in-person visit from a nurse who can conduct any physical testing you may need.
  • Care Chat is an in-app chat session with a nurse.
  • Care Couriers, who will deliver prescribed medications to your home or office.

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Healthcare
Sept. 25, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Clinical

I have a riddle for everyone. What am I?

I was supposed to start in 2018; then I was postponed until 2019; then I was delayed again until 2020. Now I must be implemented by January 1, 2020.

I am the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) mandate that states all diagnostic medical imaging which, billed to Medicare, will be run through a Clinical Decision Support Mechanism (CDSM).

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CDSM
August 27, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“Urgent

Last week, I twisted my ankle playing in the backyard with my dogs. My dogs have me well trained; I throw the ball, they chase it, then they run away, making me then chase them to retrieve the ball. On one such circuit, my foot hit one of the holes one of my dogs had dug (I love my dogs!), and my ankle rolled in a manner that a 50+-year-old man's ankle should not move. After a quick check to ensure that none of my neighbors saw what happened, I picked myself up and limped into the house. After taking two ibuprofen and icing my ankle, the swelling did not go down, and my ankle was turning a lovely shade of purple. My next action was to ask my wife to take me to the local urgent care facility. At no point did I think to go to my local hospital's emergency room. It wasn't until after I returned home with doctor's orders to rest, take ibuprofen, and ice the offending joint, did I realize something interesting. That should this have happened six years ago; I would have gone to the hospital instead of an urgent care facility.

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Healthcare
July 23, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“On

With many politicians and news agencies speaking about healthcare, I have yet to hear any of them discuss the crisis that is rural healthcare. Since 2010, 107 rural hospitals have closed in twenty-seven states. This number does not include facilities that have merged with or sold to another facility, but only those that have ceased to provide any form of healthcare. Additionally, according to a report created by Navigant, from information compiled from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the other CMS), nearly 20% of all rural hospitals are near insolvency and on the brink of closing.

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Rural Healthcare
June 25, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“He

I recently read an article in Kaiser Health News concerning Walmart steering its employees with injuries to imaging centers based on accuracy and not price.During the past few years, specialized hospitals throughout the country misdiagnosed approximately 50% of the Walmart employees with back injuries. As a result of these misdiagnoses, most of these employees underwent needless surgeries for injuries instead of less expensive, non-surgical treatments.

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Healthcare
May 21, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
“He

Last month, I wrote about the importance of replacing aged medical imaging equipment. But how is it best to go about convincing the leadership of a facility to invest in new equipment?

Radiology departments, imaging facilities, and private practices need to replace or add medical imaging equipment and technology continually. Often the reason for these new purchases is merely to replace old or broken equipment. Sometimes it is to acquire new technology, improve patient experience, or to achieve a higher throughput of patients. But no matter the reason, cost and revenue implications are the two usual speed-bumps in the road.

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Healthcare
April 24, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Everything old is not new again...

In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the x-ray while working with a cathode-ray tube in his laboratory in Wuerzburg University in Germany. He called this mysterious ray 'x-radiation' because he didn't know what it was. This mysterious radiation could pass through most substances that absorb visible light. From this discovery, Roentgen discovered that this ray could pass through human skin, but not bones nor metal objects. Though one of his first successful images was of his wife, Bertha's hand, his interest was not for medical application; instead, he wished to use it for commercial applications. It wasn't until February 1896 when John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England that an x-ray image was used in a surgical operation.

From these early images to today, medical imaging has become a crucial element in the modern healthcare system. Modern radiology provides today's physicians with a fast and accurate diagnosis to facilitate the improvement in health outcomes and quality of life for the patients. However, this 'fast and accurate diagnosis' is often dependant on the equipment used to take the x-ray. A major factor in the 'fast and accurate diagnosis' is age and the modernity of technology of the equipment used in our healthcare facilities today.

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Healthcare
March 27, 2019
Phil Reichner
2 Comments
Amazon steps into Healthcare

In 1994, a relatively unknown former investment banker decided that he had a better way to sell books than the typical brick and mortar stores. He named this company Cadabra and consulted with former executives in the publishing industry to provide consumers a new way to shop for books.

His lawyer told him that 'Cadabra' sounded too much like 'Cadaver,' so he then tried out 'Relentless.' This time his friends advised him that this name was too aggressive for a business. By now, most of you will know this is the story of Jeff Bezos and the founding of Amazon. (If you type relentless.com into your browser, guess where the page redirects.) Over the next 25 years, Jeff Bezos and Amazon have rewritten business as we know it and has turned many industries on their heads.

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Healthcare
February 25, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
The Nightmare Continues...

A few months ago, I wrote about "21st Century Consumerism and the Nightmare of Prior Authorizations" . Well, it seems that I am not the only one that sees them as such, this week the American Medical Association (AMA) released a video entitled "Prior Authorization is a Nightmare."

Throughout the video, physicians of varied specialties speak about how prior authorizations has affected their practices and the impact they have on their patients. Two eye-opening statistics delivered in this video are that as of the "December 2017 AMA Prior Authorization Physician Survey" *:

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Prior Authorizations
Jan. 21, 2019
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
The Importance of Cybersecurity for Medical IOT Devices

Previously, we wrote about the growing importance of cybersecurity and the ever-increasing threats to our internet-based computers and equipment (Cybersecurity) and how Artificial Intelligence will soon affect the medical imaging industry (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning). Today, I would like to explore a threat that will soon be on the horizon and combines these two topics, cyber-terrorism.

According to Black Book Research*, 90% of healthcare organizations have had some form of data breach since July 2016, with almost 50% of these organizations recording five or more breaches. The same report revealed that 96% of IT professionals believed that data attackers are outpacing their medical enterprises, putting these healthcare organizations at a continued disadvantage.

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Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence
Dec. 17, 2018
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Rural Healthcare in Crisis

“Farm livin’ is the life for me, land spreading out so far and wide, Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside.” Theme from Green Acres, Television sitcom from 1965-71.

In the show, the main character Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Arnold), ditches his New York legal practice to become a farmer in rural America. Unfortunately, today what Mr. Douglas would also experience with “farm livin’” is his access to health care, and indeed his health might be at risk if he continued to live there.

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Rural Healthcare
Nov. 12, 2018
John Lilly
1 Comment
Hey, you got any of those Visa Gift Cards?

"Phil,
I am about to run into a meeting and need some Visa Gift cards for a customer. Can you run to the store and pick up $500 in Visa Gift cards and then send me the numbers?
Thanks,
John"


By now, we all have received this email or know someone who has. The name is from someone in our organization, but the email address is not familiar. Maybe our coworker sent it accidentally from their personal email address? Perhaps they did, but chances are it is an attempt at getting you to send some money to someone you do not know.

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Cybersecurity
Oct. 18, 2018
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
The Rise of the Machines

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the fictional Terminator movie franchise popularized the idea of machines surpassing human intelligence, and we all laughed (or cried, depends on who's side you were on in the movie).However, in today's world, this fictional story of machines being able to "think" and "learn" is now a reality. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are behind some of today's most popular technologies. Take for example Google's Assistant who recently called and made a reservation at a hair salon (View it here) in such a manner that myself and the person on the other end of the phone thought it was a human being. Scary, huh

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AI
August 29, 2018
Phil Reichner
1 Comment
Chinese Che$$

Growing up, I remember playing Chinese Checkers, which appeared to me to be a more interesting version of checkers that I’d play with my grandfather. When I got older, I found out that Chinese Checkers was actually a German game, and though similar in many ways, it wasn’t checkers. Much later, I saw some gentlemen in San Francisco’s Chinatown play what I thought was chess- but it was Chinese Chess. Chinese Chess (Xiangqi) is similar to Western Chess, but with a few variations. The rules prohibit the main pieces (generals) from facing each other directly; areas on the board called the river and palace, which restrict the movement of some pieces (but enhance that of others); and placement of the pieces on the intersections of the board lines, rather than within the squares. (Wikipedia). I was trying to identify the pawns and Queen- their game had different pieces and moved in strange ways according to my knowledge base of what I thought I was seeing.

All of this is very analogous to the current burgeoning trade war between the United States and China, which has very real ramifications for the medical imaging industry- and virtually everything in between.


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Tariffs
August 8, 2018
John Lillie
0 Comments
21st Century Consumerism

The 21st Century is a marvel of information technology moving at the speed of light. Today's consumer is well informed, more so than any other time in history due to the improved communication that comes from the internet, apps, and social media platforms. With the increasing amounts of information available today, businesses have noticed an emerging hyper-consumerism in today's marketplace. Consumers spend more time researching the purchase of a good or service now than ever before. One of the most prolific industries examined by today's consumers is the healthcare industry.


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Prior Authorizations
July 19, 2018
Phil Reichner
0 Comments
Kick the Can

The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) calls for the implementation of Clinical Decision Support Mechanisms (CDSM) which utilize Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved appropriate use criteria (AUC).These CDSMs must be consulted prior to completing an order for either CT, MRI, Nuclear Medicine, or PET studies for Medicare outpatients in any non-inpatient place of service.


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CDSM
July 9, 2018
John Lillie
0 Comments