|
|
Edition: March 2021 |
Table of Contents |
|
|
Letter from the Editor |
As a Radiation Oncologist specializing in breast cancer treatment, the issue of breast cancer screening is an important one for me. The FRS has previously supported the breast density legislation that was enacted. At the Winter FRS Board of Director meeting, we were asked to review recent breast screening legislation. In January, Senator Lori Berman filed SB 1038 a bill relating to insurance coverage for breast cancer tests and procedures. This bill recommends insurance carriers may not apply cost-sharing requirements for diagnostic mammograms, breast MRI, or breast ultrasounds ordered by a provider. The FRS Committee on Breast Imaging was tasked with providing expert input on the legislation. To review the Bill Click Here The FRS Committee on Breast Imaging, chaired by Mary Swain, MD, FACR, reviewed the bill in detail to determine the FRS position. After thorough review, the Committee decided with unanimous agreement that the bill is too broad in scope for FRS endorsement. Concerns raised by the Committee, in addition to the overly broad scope of the bill, were mandating coverage of essentially all breast imaging would drive cost of screening with the potential of disincentivizing screening recommendation in women age 40-50. Additional concerns included mandated coverage if enacted, should include contrast-enhanced mammography. Most members also expressed concern over increased health care costs for all. The Committee felt support of a more tailored bill would be possible and appreciated the opportunity to give input. The Annual Meeting Program and Education Committee is moving forward with plans for the 2021 Annual Meeting of the FRS & FRBMA in Orlando, July 16-18. The Committee will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic with contingency planning in place, if necessary. The meeting programs and registration can be accessed here: Click Here There is a great agenda planned and we are hopeful we will be meeting in person this year! In addition, please share information regarding the H. Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award. This is a scholarship opportunity for Florida Diagnostic Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Medical Physicist 2nd year Residents or graduate students. This award supports the cost of accommodations for attending the FRS annual summer meeting. The resident will have an officer mentor and will attend all functions including the board meeting. The deadline for application is May 15, 2021. Click Here
|
Laura Vallow, M.D. Secretary, FRS Vallow.Laura@mayo.edu |
|
Meet Your 2020 – 2021 FRS Executive Committee |
|
President Douglas Hornsby, MD |
|
President-Elect Rajendra Kedar, MD, FACR |
|
Treasurer Chintan Desai, MD |
|
Secretary Laura Vallow, MD |
|
|
|
|
|
FRS President’s Message |
MERGING INTO THE LIGHT, STAYING ENGAGED AND CHEERING FOR THE HOME TEAM
Let’s hope many of us have received at least one and possibly both vaccinations against the pandemic virus that has caused such a change in our practice and in the care of our patients in the past year. Greater than half a million Americans have died from the pandemic, and it has changed our lives in some ways permanently and in other ways temporarily. However, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is not the beginning of the end but possibly the end of the beginning of the fight. With the recent release of national guidelines for vaccinated individuals, many of us can emerge from our cocoons and visit our relatives, go to the store, and go out into the sunshine. I look forward to the time when not every conversation is dominated by the worldwide pandemic and its aftermath. In the meantime, it is amazing to this writer to realize that I have only filled my car with fuel once in the past year. With the reopening of recommended activities, it is with great joy that I can ride around in the cocoon of my car and not fear to get out and walk across the parking lot and go into the hardware store and within limits go eat at a restaurant. An article from the American College of Radiology, March Bulletin, by Andrew K. Moriarity, M.D., notes that the ACL coalition of greater than a million providers helped impact legislature. This coalition is effective and has protected both our patients and our members. Changes in reimbursement were positively affected by this coalition. However, the results for many of the changes are only temporary. The ACR encourages us to stay engaged with not only our individual specialties but with our colleagues in the house of medicine and to remain connected with our legislatures both at the local and national level to protect the interest of our patients and our professions. Please remain active in our affiliated organization in the house of medicine and stay engaged with individuals and institutions which shape the outcome of our practice and care of our patients. I am happy to see in the same bulletin, the nominations for the 2021 positions for the ACR include two from the home team, Dr. Pat Mergo, for a seat on the Council Steering Committee and Dr. Boyd N. Hatton, known to all as “Nick” Hatton, running for College Nominating Committee. Please give appropriate support to these individuals as they will enhance the voice of FRS on the national stage of the American College of Radiology. Please abide by the ACR Electioneering Policy. Remember and please register for the upcoming ACR National Meeting and also please register for our IN-PERSON meeting scheduled in Orlando this coming July.
|
Doug Hornsby, MD President, FRS doughornsby@msn.com |
|
|
Past President Patricia Mergo, MD, FACR |
|
Legal Counsel Michael M. Raskin, M.D., J.D., FACR |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FRBMA President’s Message |
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission Yes, I am going a bit off-grid writing about the Perseverance Rover Mission. There is a tie-in as the Rover is using a diagnostic tool called PIXL X-ray, which I will describe later and is essential to NASA’s mission objectives. However, PIXL X-ray is not why I chose this topic, in fact at the time I decided to explore this topic I did not know about the PIXL X-ray. Several months ago, our Past President and current Vice President, Dr. James Killius, recommended that I follow this mission and consider writing this article. Dr. Killius is one that knows a lot about almost everything. So, I took his advice and started following the mission. I found it all very fascinating and I hope you at least find it interesting.
Mars currently has a temperature of minus 80 degrees. The atmosphere is very thin and made up of 85% carbon dioxide and just 1% oxygen. It is not believed that it can sustain life. However, around 3 billion years ago it had an atmosphere more similar to what we have on earth and could have sustained life.
The Goals of the Perseverance Rover Mission are to (1) determine if life existed on Mars (2) characterize the climate on Mars (3) characterize the geology on Mars and finally (4) prepare for human exploration on Mars.
The launch date for this mission was July 30, 2020. The Perseverance Rover touched down in the Jezero crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, a little over six months after the takeoff from Port Canaveral. The Jezero crater landing spot was chosen because this crater shows evidence that about 3 billion years ago the crater was a large lake. There is visual evidence of both a water inlet and water outlet to the crater. Adjacent to the inlet there is visual evidence of a delta where rock and sand were deposited which was caused by the slowing flow of water into the lake. You can find pictures of the Jezero crater and once you know what you are looking at, it is pretty easy to visualize the inlet, outlet, and delta. The Jezero crater is about 26 miles wide and was considered by NASA as one of the optimal targets for detecting whether there was ever life on Mars.
To accomplish their first goal NASA wanted to collect samples from Martian rocks and then have the samples brought back to earth. The sampling process can be summarized as follows: find compelling rocks, collect rock samples, hermetically seal the samples in a tube, store the samples in the belly of the Rover and finally select a safe drop site and drop all samples where the samples can be retrieved on a later mission. The rock samples will not be able to be retrieved and returned to earth until somewhere around 2031.
The PIXR X-ray plays a central role in finding “compelling rocks”. NASA explains the PIXR X-ray as follows “an X-ray beam that can focus on rock features as small as a grain of salt. That lets PIXL find any small traces of life that microbes may be left behind. PIXL detects over 20 chemical “fingerprints” – even when the amount is only a few parts per million. It finds the exact tiny spot in a rock where each chemical is” The Rover will collect about 40 such samples during this mission. Each of these samples will be placed in a test tube similar in size to what we use. NASA had to essentially invent and design a mechanism to create and construct these test tubes in a totally clean environment. Otherwise, earth-based contamination found in the tubes would result in the failure of the mission.
In addition to the sample tubes where the rock samples are placed, NASA also used something they called witness tubes. Witness tubes will not carry any rock samples as they are essentially just empty tubes. However, they are cached and stored the same way as the sample tubes. NASA is using witness tubes to see if any terrestrial contaminants were introduced by the mission itself, i.e. not part of the Mars environment. This way NASA can identify those contaminates in the witness tubes and to the extent the same contaminates are also found in the sample tubes then NASA will know those contaminates are not part of the Mars environment.
PIXL X-Ray is just one of the five testing technologies used on the Perseverance Rover. The other testing technologies are RIMFAX which is a subsurface radar, SMEDA which is a weather station, SHERLOC ultraviolet Spectrometer, and MOXIE which produces oxygen from Martian CO2. Each of these plays some role in meeting NASA’s four objectives.
There is so much more and if you’re interested, I encourage you to explore the NASA website. My thanks to Dr. Killius for sending me on this journey. Back to radiology next month discussing the Appropriate Use Criteria Program.
|
John Detelich, CPA, MBA, CEO President, FRBMA jdetelich@radassociates.com |
|
|
|
|
Legislative Update |
On March 2nd, the sixty-day legislative session commenced. Tuesday started with the leaders in both chambers addressing their members on their thoughts on the upcoming session. They broke and then the Governor came to the House chambers to deliver his state-of-the-state address. Traditionally, the Senators come to the House chambers to hear the Governor along with former members of the House and Senate and the Cabinet. This joint session was unique as the Senate remained in their chambers due to Covid concerns.
Still, no member of the public is allowed in the Senate, although there have been a couple of meetings where the Senate Chair has invited public experts to come in and testify before their committee. The public has to testify via zoom from the Civic Center. The House is allowing the public to sign up in advance to be in the committee room to testify but they cap the number of people admitted. Otherwise, you again have to testify from the Civic Center. You can set meetings with House members in their Capitol offices but it is discouraged. The House members and all staff are tested twice a week as are the Senators and their staff.
The issues this session are primarily Covid related. The House and Senate are fast-tracking the Covid liability protection bills for business and for health care providers.
Many scope expansion bills and Telehealth bills have been filed in both houses. It is too early to determine what will pass.
Dr. Miles is in the Capitol as doctor of the day, sponsored by Representative Elizabeth Fetterhoff, this opening week and I am looking forward to hearing his observations from the inside.
Please do not hesitate to contact me via email if you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns. |
Thanks, Alison Dudley, FRS Lobbyist AlisonDudley@dudleyandassociates.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award |
H. Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award – A scholarship opportunity for Florida Diagnostic Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Medical Physicist 2nd year Residents or graduate students.
Martin Northup was very committed to radiology resident education and advancement. To eternally honor and remember him, the board of the FRS Foundation has established a special award bearing his name, the “H Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award.” Each year, this award will be given to a 2nd year Florida radiology resident who will be a 3rd year at the time of the fellowship to support the cost of accommodations for attending the FRS annual summer meeting. The resident will have an officer mentor and will attend all functions including the board meeting. The goal is to develop future leaders in Radiology and develop promising residents to assume greater roles in the society, such as President of the Resident and Fellow’s Section. The award recipient will be chosen for the 2021 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, July 16-18, 2021 by the Scholarships and Grants committee based on a competitive application process.
Please click here to download an application. Return your completed application to lroger@edusymp.com by May 15, 2021 in order to be considered for this award. |
Thank you, Jeffrey Stone, M.D., FACR President, FRS Educational Foundation |
|
|
|
|
2021 Annual Meeting of the FRS & FRBMA |
Please join the Florida Radiological Society and the Florida Radiology Business Management Association for the 2021 Annual Meeting at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, July 16-18, 2021. The meeting will focus on “Excelling in an Everchanging Paradigm” and will feature lectures by faculty who are leaders in the practice of radiology. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando, Florida. |
|
|
|
|
Job Posting Opportunities |
Florida Radiological Society is pleased to introduce the opportunity for interested parties to advertise for potential jobs in our monthly FRS Ebrief bulletin.
Advertisement pricing is as follows:
Ebrief Job Posting pricing: 3 months ($100 monthly) 6 months ($90 monthly) 12 months ($80 monthly)
Please contact Lorraine Roger, our Society Administrator for further information on how to advertise in our monthly publication. Phone: (813) 806-1070 Fax: (813) 806-1071 Email: lroger@flrad.org
We feel that this will provide a valuable service to both our members and our Florida community of Radiology.
|
Thank you for your interest! Patricia Mergo, MD, FACR |
|
|
|
|
Become a PAC Member Today |
Attention FRBMA Members! Please support the cause. We encourage you to be PAC members and supporters; you do not have to belong to the FRS. Donations can be made online through our PAC website www.FLRADPAC.org. Thank you for your donation.
It is critical that we support both our Florida PAC and RADPAC in order to bolster our voice in Tallahassee and Washington, respectively. Please join FRS lobbyist Alison Dudley in her special appeal for all Florida radiologists to become Florida PAC members. If you would like to help FRS defend radiology against untoward legislation and introduce bills that have a positive impact on our practices, we need your financial support to re-elect our friends in the state House and Senate. The FRS can also show you simplified ways on how to sign up your radiology group. Contact Lorraine Roger at lroger@flrad.org or contact Alison Dudley at alisondudley@dudleyandassociates.com for more information. |
|
|
|
|
text! |
|
|
Telephone (813) 806-1070 • Fax (813) 806-1071 5620 W. Sligh Avenue • Tampa, Florida 33634 |
The E-Brief is an exclusive member benefit of Florida Radiological Society, delivering monthly member, chapter and industry news. Please do not reply to this automatic e-mail. For comments or questions about the E-Brief, please contact lroger@flrad.org. |
|
|