Malik Juweid, MD                                            
Innovations Report
A limitation of current cancer care is the difficulty of quickly assessing how well a therapy is working. However, expanding the use of existing positron emission tomography (PET) technology can provide early and accurate assessment of a tumor's response to a particular therapy, allowing physicians to better tailor a patient's treatment, according to Juweid, associate professor of radiology at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The article cited an item written by Juweid and a physician at Georgetown University Hospital in the New England Journal of Medicine which outlined the advantages and limitations of P.E.T. imaging in assessing cancer therapy. The article suggested that increasing the role of P.E.T. imaging has the potential to further improve cancer care management.

Moshe Wald, MD                                                      Invanhoe.com
A new tool developed at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics helps experts better predict outcomes of specific infertility treatments, allowing the doctor to choose the treatment method most likely to help the couple achieve pregnancy, according to the Web site, which focuses on medical breakthroughs. The computation model, created by Wald, assistant professor of urology, applies when a woman's own eggs can be used for an advanced form of in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The model takes into consideration the woman's age, factors that cause the man's infertility, the choice of three different sperm retrieval methods, and the choice of using fresh or frozen sperm. Wald was quoted as saying the model was designed because it is difficult to predict whether pregnancy will be achieved for couples when different factors are at play. Physicians needed a technique to help them plan the best approach and counsel the patients appropriately so he developed the computation to do just that.

Stuart Weinstein, MD                                             
New York Times
The American Medical Association has signed a pact with Congress promising to develop more than 100 standard measures of performance, which doctors will report to the federal government in an effort to improve the quality of care. The deal comes as the Bush administration pushes “pay for performance” arrangements with various health care providers in an effort to publicize their performance and link Medicare payment to quality. And it mirrors efforts in the private sector, where consumer groups, insurance companies, and large employers who pay for health care are demanding more information on the quality of care. But Weinstein, an orthopaedics professor at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, said the timetable endorsed by the AMA and Congressional leaders was unrealistic. “Performance measures need to be developed by specialty societies, then tested and validated, to confirm that they really affect patient care in a positive way,” he said.