Image sharing aims to reduce need for repeat scans

Several state and regional health-information exchanges have begun sharing images electronically, and a number of companies sell image-sharing technology directly to hospitals and radiology clinics in a development that could slow health care spending.

The Wall Street Journal: Image Sharing Seeks to Reduce Repeat Scans 
When 5-year-old Piper Gibson was hospitalized in Oklahoma City last summer with frightening strokelike symptoms, her father, Chris, got a same-day second opinion on her brain scan from another neurologist -- in Boston. Mr. Gibson was able to get the second opinion with unusual efficiency by taking advantage of a secure electronic network that can transfer medical images in minutes. It is one of a growing number of image-exchange services that eliminate many of the hassles patients encounter in transferring CT-scans, MRIs, X-rays and ultrasounds whenever they seek a second opinion, consult a specialist or start seeing a new doctor (Landro, 4/1).

Aspiring nurses will soon have a new exam to take --

Marketplace: Nursing Exams Keep Pace With Health Care Tech Advances
This week the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which administers nurse licensing exams, is rolling out a new update to its test. Remember those Johnson & Johnson ads from the early 2000s? The sentimental long-form tributes to nurses? Consider how much those nurses have had to adapt to big changes in their tool kit in the last ten years -- and the exam that licenses new nurses is changing too. "We've just seen technological revolution in medicine and nursing," says Susan Sanders, Vice President of Kaplan Nursing, who has been a nurse for 34 years (Casey, 4/2).

In the meantime, a new medical school in Connecticut seeks to train primary care doctors --

Kaiser Health News: New Med School Aims To Train Primary Care Docs
Michael Ellison has a tough assignment. He's the associate dean of admissions choosing the first class of a brand new medical school, the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. It's a school with a very specific mission: minting new doctors who want to go into primary care practice (Cohen, 4/2).