1. SDMS Establishes Distinguished Educator Award
2. SDMS Releases 2003 Awards and Competition Guidelines and Application
3. SDMS HIPAA Resource Center
4. Poster Presentation Resource for Educators
5. Change of Address for JDMS Manuscript Submissions
6. Oakstone Publishing Reinstated as CME Provider
7. CMS Releases 2003 Fee Schedule
8. News & Notes
9. Important Dates

SDMS is pleased to announce a new addition to its prestigious awards program, the Distinguished Educator Award. This award was created to honor educators who have made a marked contribution to education and the profession. This award will be presented during the Awards Ceremony at the SDMS Annual Conference.

The deadline for nomination submission is February 3, 2003.

Award information and nomination forms are available at:

Each year, the SDMS and the SDMS Educational Foundation recognize outstanding achievement in ultrasound through a variety of awards and competitions including:

• Scientific Presentation Competition
• Sonographer Poster Exhibit Competition
• Student Sonographer Poster Exhibit Competition
• W. Frederick Sample Student Excellence Award

• Philips Medical Systems Echocardiography Award
• Bracco Diagnostics, Inc. Research Award
• Bristol-Myers Sqibb, Medical Imaging, Inc. Contrast Imaging Award
• GE Medical Systems - Excellence in Sonography Award
• Graduate Research Award
• Medison 3D Sonography Award

For more information, visit:

SDMS members can now visit our HIPAA Resource Center with links to information on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Medical Privacy - National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information. The Privacy Rule creates national standards to protect individuals' personal health information and gives patients increased access to their medical records. The compliance deadline is April 14, 2003.

Members can ask questions about HIPAA and its impact on sonography in the SDMS Discussion Forums.

For more information, visit:

Poster presentations are an educational and effective way to get your students involved in their professional association at the 2003 SDMS Annual Conference in Dallas, Oct. 16-19. Katie Kuntz, Director of Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program at Mayo Clinic, has prepared an informative 'pearls and pitfalls' presentation to help educators to help their students prepare a poster presentation.

To view the presentation online, visit:

To download the Powerpoint file*, visit:

  http://www.sdms.org/presentations/posters.ppt

* You may need to right click on the link above and choose "Save Target As".

Manuscript submissions for the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS) can be submitted online through Rapid Review at:

OR mailed directly to the Editor. Effective immediately, if you are mailing your manuscript, it must be sent to:

Jean Lea Spitz, MPH,RDMS
JDMS Editor
PO Box 21843
Oklahoma City, OK 73156-1843

For complete information about the JDMS, the article submission process, and helpful submission information, please visit:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on December 20 a final rule that will update physician payment rates under the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2003. The rule also revises a number of other policies affecting Medicare Part B payment for physicians and other providers.

The fee schedule specifies rates paid to physicians for more than 7,000 health care services and procedures ranging from routine office visits to complex surgical procedures. In 2003, Medicare is expected to pay approximately $44.9 billion to over 750,000 physicians and other practitioners for services paid under the physician fee schedule. Under the final rule, the physician fee conversion factor, which adjusts the base calculation for all physician services, will be reduced by 4.4 percent, beginning March 1, 2003, although total physician spending will increase by 2 percent in 2003.

The final rule, which will be published in the December 31 Federal Register, will be effective on March 1, 2003. Services provided on or after January 1 and before March 1 will be paid under the 2002 fee schedule.

The full text of the final rule is available on the CMS website at:
  http://www.cms.hhs.gov/REGULATIONS/PFS/

SDMS' lobbying team at Arent Fox has prepared a table of payment rates for ultrasound technical component (TC) services for 2003 compared to the 2002 rates and the Hospital Outpatient Department (HOPD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) payments. The table can be found at:

The News & Notes column includes links to web-based news articles of interest to sonographers. To submit articles, send the URL to webmaster@sdms.org

• Doppler ultrasound in epithelial ovarian cancer
  http://www.usreview.com.au/Oct2002.htm#Doppler



• Ultrasound scan spots Down's syndrome
  http://www.nature.com/nsu/021216/021216-14.html



• New method of delivering chemotherapy using ultrasound works in BYU lab
  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-12/byu-nmo121702.php



• 'Pill-Cam' Beats X-Ray in Finding Tumors
  http://my.webmd.com/content/article/54/65283.htm