-VISIT OUR OTHER FORUMS- OB-GYN-L Ultrasound Ultrasound History Fibroid Forum Physicians-in-Training Tech Talk OBSTET-L (portuguese) OBGIN-L (spanish) Nursing

GEN: Whole Body CT Centers Closing From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com) Fri Feb 4 06:02:37 2005 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: art fougner, md: "Re: monitoring a fetus (preop and postop) during non gynecological surgery" Previous message: Dr. John Provatopoulos B.Sc. M.D.C.M. F.R.S.C.: "Re: OB: GBS--recent case" Thought this would be of interest, art US commercial scanning clinics are closing down Scott Gottlieb New York The trend in the United States for people to pay for whole body computed tomography scans has declined, and once thriving large businesses set up for the purpose are now closing down their operations. The growth began in the late 1990s with the creation of hundreds of scanning centres, many of which funded large advertising campaigns aimed directly at the consumer. Thousands of Americans were paying out of their own pockets for the scans, which could cost $1000 (£530; {euro}770) or more. Whole body scans gained much momentum in 2000, helped in large part by a high profile media campaign by Dr Harvey Eisenberg, the owner of HealthView, a scanning centre in Newport Beach, California. Academic medical centres also got into the business, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard, which opened its "Be Well Body" scan. The centre is owned by the Beth Israel Radiology Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports the hospital's radiology department. Now many of the businesses created to deliver the scans are being closed. CT Screening International, which scanned 25 000 people at 13 centres across the nation, went out of business. AmeriScan, another national chain, also closed down. A New York Times article reports that the closing of these businesses shows the limits of direct to consumer advertising and the power of dissuasion by professional societies, which warned against having the scans (23 January; sect 1: 1). The tests, they said, would mostly find innocuous lumps in places like the thyroid or lungs, requiring rounds of additional tests to rule out real problems, and would miss common cancers, such as those of the breast. The scans also concerned public health officials, including the Food and Drug Administration, which warned that the scans could lead to other unnecessary and potentially dangerous diagnostic testing. Dr Barnett Kramer, director of the US National Institutes of Health's Office of Disease Prevention, said: "For every 100 healthy people who undergo a scan, somewhere between 30 and 80 of them will be told that there is something that needs a workup—and it will turn out to be nothing." Concern is also growing about the rising cost of diagnostic imaging in the United States—even legitimate scans ordered by doctors for the purpose of diagnosing real and suspected medical problems. This year alone the total cost could reach nearly $100bn for all types of diagnostic imaging. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7486/272-a?ehom -- art fougner, md "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." Lawrence Peter Berra Next message: art fougner, md: "Re: monitoring a fetus (preop and postop) during non gynecological surgery" Previous message: Dr. John Provatopoulos B.Sc. M.D.C.M. F.R.S.C.: "Re: OB: GBS--recent case"

Return to

Mail a New Message to the Forum: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net Forum Administrator: geffrey.klein@obgyn.net Report Technical Problems: webmaster@obgyn.net Last Updated: Thu Oct 2 04:47:47 2008

The American Medical Association is no longer designating CME hours for AMA Category II CME credit. However, physicians themselves may self designate learning activities as Category II CME credit hours if they feel it is of sufficient educational merit and meets the formal definitions of continuing medical education. OBGYN.net believes these interaction in this forum meets these criteria. For further information see the AMA web site.