Payment structures influence dental radiography utilisation?

NHS dentists were traditionally paid for individual “items of treatment”: each X-ray they took resulted in a payment. In England, the number of X-rays taken in 2003/04 averaged 53.2 per 100 “courses of treatment”. Since 2006, however, NHS dentists in England have not received payments for individual X-rays, but only for completed courses of treatment. Preliminary results for 2007/08 show that the number of X-rays taken by dentists in England has decreased to 31.5 per 100 courses of treatment. In Scotland, by contrast, where the traditional method of payment for dentists continues, there has been no equivalent reduction.

Margaret McCarthy
Financial Times 11 April 2009
link
blogs.ft.com/mccartney

Screening for occult cancer in idiopathic DVT?

From:

Should patients with venous thrombosis have cancer screening?

RK Patel

Thrombus, 2009 Apr. Volume 13, Number 1.

http://www.thrombus.co.uk/thrombus/View_article.asp?AID=1988

Other Refs:

Venous Thromboembolism and Occult Malignancy: Simultaneous Detection During Pulmonary CT Angiography with CT Venography
Bierry et al. Am. J. Roentgenol 2008; 191: 885-889
DOI:10.2214/AJR.07.3516
http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/abstract/191/3/885

Occult malignancy in patients with venous thromboembolism: risk indicators and a...
Oktar et al. Phlebology.2007; 22: 75-79
http://phleb.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/75

Screening for occult cancer in patients with acute venous thromboembolism.
Monreal M, Trujillo-Santos J.
Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2007 Sep;13(5):368-71.

[Occult cancer and venous thromboembolism: which screening in patients with inaugural deep vein thrombosis?]
Pathol Biol (Paris). 2008 Jun;56(4):205-10.
Lévesque H.[Article in French]

Recently completed trial:

Screening for Occult Malignancy in Idiopathic Venous Thromboembolism (Univeristy of Padova)

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00361647