Industry Points To Gaps In Study Naming Imaging As Key US Cost Driver

A Harvard study concluded that higher utilization rates for advanced imaging in the US, compared to 10 other wealthy countries with higher life expectancies, help account for America's unnecessarily high spending on medical care. Industry argues the study misrepresents current imaging use.

A study from Harvard researchers identified advanced imaging as one factor driving higher health-care costs in the US, but a coalition of imaging companies, physicians and patient groups said the study has not "accurately portrayed the state of medical imaging in the US." The researchers narrowly focused on the commercial market and failed to account for the ongoing adoption of appropriate use criteria (AUC) for imaging, says the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC.)

AMIC Executive Director Tim Trysla, said the results of the study, titled, "Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries," were misleading, because it "does not provide a full picture of medical imaging in the

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