[Attitudes toward digital tools in pain medicine : Survey of German Pain Society health professional members and members of self-help groups].

Digital medicine has increasing influence on the German healthcare system. In times of social distancing during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, digital tools enable health professionals to maintain medical care. Furthermore, digital elements have potential to provide effective guideline-oriented treatment to a broad range of patients independently from location and time.

[Digitalization in healthcare: today and in the future].

Although Germany continues to struggle with the digital transformation of healthcare, there is reason for optimism. The political will to improve healthcare with digital technologies has been underpinned by numerous legal initiatives since 2018. In addition, there is growing acceptance among healthcare providers and the population.

Advancing digital health applications: priorities for innovation in real-world evidence generation.

In 2019, Germany passed the Digital Healthcare Act, which, among other things, created a "Fast-Track" regulatory and reimbursement pathway for digital health applications in the German market. The pathway explicitly provides for flexibility in how researchers can present evidence for new digital products, including the use of real-world data and real-world evidence. Against this backdrop, the Digital Medicine Society and the Health Innovation Hub of the German Federal Ministry of Health convened a set of roundtable discussions to bring together international experts in evidence generation for digital medicine products.

[Digitalization of healthcare and its effects on quality of care].

Ensuring the quality of healthcare services is a core concern of the statutory health insurance system. It is therefore not surprising that recent initiatives to (further) digitalize the healthcare system, specifically to introduce the electronic patient record and other applications in the telematics infrastructure, with the Patient Data Protection Act ("Patientendaten-Schutz-Gesetz", PDSG) of digital health applications with the Digital Care Act ("Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz", DVG), or to strengthen hospital IT with the Hospital Future Act ("Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz", KHZG), are justified by ensuring or even increasing the quality-of-service provision.This article sheds light on the question of how the use of various digital solutions relates to the classic goals of quality assurance in healthcare, in particular, whether digital solutions are suitable for promoting quality assurance.

Healthcare costs for new technologies.

Introduction: Continuous ageing of the population coupled with growing health consciousness and continuous technological advances have fueled the rapid rise in healthcare costs in the United States and Europe for the past several decades. The exact impact of new medical technology on long-term spending growth remains the subject of controversy. By all measures it is apparent that new medical technology is the dominant driver of increases in health-care costs and hence insurance premiums.

Contrast-enhanced multidetector-CT cholangiography after living donor liver transplantation.

Background/aims: To prospectively evaluate the feasibility of postoperative contrast enhanced Multi-detector-CT cholangiography (ceMDCT-CA) in living liver donors and transplant recipients.

Methodology: Fifteen donors and 11 recipients of a right hepatic lobe underwent ceMDCT-CA. Six donors were admitted to exclude biliary leakage; 9 donors and 11 recipients were examined to exclude postoperative biliary obstruction.

Evaluation of living liver donors with an all-inclusive 3D multi-detector row CT protocol.

Purpose: To prospectively assess parenchymal, vascular, and biliary anatomy of potential living liver donors with an all-inclusive multi-detector row computed tomographic (CT) approach.

Materials And Methods: A total of 250 potential living liver donors (112 women, 138 men; mean age, 37 years) underwent three-phase, dual-enhancement multi-detector row CT to delineate biliary, vascular, and parenchymal morphology according to an institutional review board-approved protocol. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Variability of preoperatively determined hepatic volumes in potential living liver donors.

Rationale And Objectives: The aim of the study is to evaluate variability in hepatic volumes during the preoperative period in potential liver donors.

Materials And Methods: Eight potential living liver donors underwent preoperative multirow-detector computed tomographic assessment of hepatic transplant volumes twice. Intraindividual delay between the two examinations range was 3-62 days (mean, 30.

Detection of pulmonary nodules using a 2D HASTE MR sequence: comparison with MDCT.

Objective: The objective of our study was to determine the diagnostic performance of MRI based on a HASTE sequence for the detection of pulmonary nodules in comparison with MDCT.

Materials And Methods: Thirty patients with known pulmonary nodules underwent both MRI and CT. CT of the lung served as the standard of reference and was performed on a 4-MDCT scanner using a routine protocol.

Total-body 3D magnetic resonance angiography influences the management of patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

High-resolution total-body 3D MR angiography (MRA) has recently become available, revealing additional clinically relevant disease in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). However, the actual impact of total-body MRA on patient management in patients with PAOD has not been investigated so far. Two hundred forty-nine consecutive patients with angiographically proven PAOD were prospectively examined by means of contrast-enhanced total-body 3D MRA on a 1.

Elective full-body screening examinations: a plea for MRI.

The use of imaging is generally focussed on detecting and characterising suspected or known disease in symptomatic patients. Experience with preventative imaging, aiming at the detection of disease prior to its symptomatic manifestation, is limited. Screening involves the evaluation of asymptomatic individuals at risk for the presence of a particular disease.

Colonography by magnetic resonance imaging.

Dark-lumen magnetic resonance colonography has been shown to be an appropriate diagnostic tool for the detection of colorectal pathologies. This review describes the underlying techniques of dark-lumen magnetic resonance colonography concerning data acquisition, image interpretation and diagnostic accuracy for the detection of colorectal pathologies. In addition, techniques to improve patients' acceptance are discussed.

"All-in-one" imaging protocols for the evaluation of potential living liver donors: comparison of magnetic resonance imaging and multidetector computed tomography.

In order to compare the performance of "all-in-one" magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and "all-in-one" multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in the preharvest evaluation 25 potential living donors underwent both MRI and MDCT. MRI was performed on a high-performance 1.5-T scanner, computed tomography (CT) on a 4-row multidetector-scanner.

Small bowel hydro-MR imaging for optimized ileocecal distension in Crohn's disease: should an additional rectal enema filling be performed?

Purpose: To assess the impact of an additional rectal enema filling in small bowel hydro-MRI in patients with Crohn's disease.

Materials And Methods: A total of 40 patients with known Crohn's disease were analyzed retrospectively: 20 patients only ingested an oral contrast agent (group A), the other 20 subjects obtained an additional rectal water enema (group B). For small bowel distension, a solution containing 0.

Evaluation of steady state free precession imaging of the pancreas.

The aim of this work was to assess the diagnostic value of fast steady state free precession (SSFP) for the detection, characterization, and delineation of pancreatic lesions. Forty-eight patients referred for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the pancreas were included in the study. In addition to the standard protocol, axial pre-contrast SSFP slices of the pancreas were acquired.

Parallel acquisition techniques for accelerated volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination magnetic resonance imaging of the upper abdomen: assessment of image quality and lesion conspicuity.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of parallel acquisition techniques (PATs) on image quality and detection of liver metastases using three-dimensional volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE) for clinical liver imaging.

Materials And Methods: Forty-nine patients with various primary malignancies underwent abdominal dynamic contrast-enhanced three-dimensional VIBE magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (1.5 T) using a standard phased array coil.

Assessment of liver tissue after radiofrequency ablation: findings with different imaging procedures.

Unlabelled: Our goal was to assess the typical appearance of normal liver tissue immediately after radiofrequency ablation (RF-ablation) when imaged with contrast-enhanced ultrasound, CT, MRI, 18F-FDG PET, and PET/CT.

Methods: Nineteen RF-ablation sessions were performed on nontumorous liver tissue of 10 Göttingen Mini Pigs. CT, ultrasound, MRI, 18F-FDG PET, and PET/CT were performed immediately after the intervention.

Full-body cardiovascular and tumor MRI for early detection of disease: feasibility and initial experience in 298 subjects.

Objective: High diagnostic accuracy, emerging whole-body concepts, and lack of side effects combine to render MRI a natural candidate for screening purposes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the technical feasibility of a comprehensive multiorgan-targeting MRI examination and determine the frequency of findings in subjects without a history of serious disease.

Subjects And Methods: The study group was composed of 331 subjects.

MR imaging of apparent small-bowel perfusion for diagnosing mesenteric ischemia: feasibility study.

The purpose of this study, which was approved by the institutional review board, was to assess the differentiation of individuals with from those without mesenteric ischemia. All subjects provided written informed consent. Six healthy volunteers and six patients with documented chronic mesenteric ischemia underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with and without oral caloric stimulation.

Dark lumen magnetic resonance colonography in a rodent polyp model: initial experience and demonstration of feasibility.

Purpose: We sought to assess dark lumen magnetic resonance (MR) colonography for the detection of colon polyps in a rodent model with histology as the gold standard.

Material And Methods: Fourteen male Wistar rats were subjected to carcinogenic N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine at the age of 4 months to induce colon neoplasms. MR imaging was performed after a time interval of 1 year.

Accuracy of whole-body dual-modality fluorine-18-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography and computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) for tumor staging in solid tumors: comparison with CT and PET.

Purpose: To assess the accuracy of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) when staging different malignant diseases.

Patients And Methods: This was a retrospective, blinded, investigator-initiated study of 260 patients with various oncological diseases who underwent fluorine-18-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose PET/CT for tumor staging. CT images alone, PET images alone, PET + CT data viewed side by side, and fused PET/CT images were evaluated separately according to the tumor-node-metastasis system.