The Industrial-strength Imaging Executive
by Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
Today’s medical-imaging profession is definitely not for the fragile and weak-kneed among our colleagues. It is becoming increasingly clear that navigating the constant changes and challenges that face the practice of radiology today will be the ultimate test of tenacity, perseverance, and creativity. We’re in the playoffs now, and the game is moving to the big-time arena—where the margin for error is nil.
Finger in the Wind
by Cheryl Proval
Physicians are in a real bind as fee-for-service reimbursement falls under attack and alternative payment methods (such as bundling and capitation) gain traction in Washington, DC. As of June 18, Medicare Part B claims were being processed with the 21.3% cut mandated by the sustainable growth rate’s formula, and House Democrats demanded legislation on jobs before they would pass the Senate bill to reverse the cut.
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Our clients include radiology practices, imaging centers, and hospitals in large and small markets across the country.
Save the Date:
July 20, 2010 11am ESTTopic
Keep Your Hospital Relationships Healthy: Strategies for Every Practice
Presenters:
Randy Roat, CHBME, VP of Radiology, MMP, and George Ehrhardt, CPA, Director, Practice Management, MMP
Medical Management Professionals, Inc.
Topic
RIS to the Rescue | Strategies for Driving Revenue, Productivity and Profitability
Sectra
Topic
Advanced Visualization | Next-generation Architectures
Visage Imaging
Debunking the Primary Myths of PACS
The road to PACS perfection is paved with distractions and pitfalls, Paul Chang, MD, FSIIM, says. Chang is professor of radiology, vice chair of radiology informatics, and medical director of enterprise imaging at University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois. During the 2010 Dwyer Lecture, “The Role of Imaging Informatics in the Next Generation of EMR/EHR,” presented June 4, 2010, at the meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chang used the experiences of other industries to debunk common PACS myths—and to illuminate next-generation requirements for imaging.
Radiologue: Whole-system Communications for Radiology
The San Francisco General Hospital/University of California–San Francisco Department of Radiology has created a groundbreaking communications tool called Radiologue. Alexander V. Rybkin, MD, a radiologist in that department, described the system in “A Web-based Flexible Communication System in Radiology,” which he presented in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 5, 2010, at the annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine.
Sparking the Storage and Sharing Revolution: Symantec Health’s Lori Wright
Radiology has a storage problem, to put it lightly: Even as the data associated with a single cross-sectional imaging study increase dramatically, HIPAA requirements to ensure patient privacy remain as stringent as ever.
Beyond the Basics: Next-generation Radiology Reports
At Shields Health Care Group (SHCG), an outpatient high-end imaging provider headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, staying ahead of the technology curve has been a clearly defined business initiative from the beginning.
New Radiology-department Solution Opens New Doors
Integration has been a buzzword in the radiology community for some time, and the team at Valhalla, New York-based Westchester Medical Center (WMC) knows why.
Have RIS/PACS, Will Travel
For over thirty years, Radiation Physics Inc (Beltsville, Maryland) has been providing mobile imaging services to the Baltimore and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas, serving long-term–care and assisted-living clients, as well as prisons and private residences.
Executing the Digital Transformation
When Saint Michael’s Medical Center (SMMC), Newark, New Jersey, was acquired by Catholic Health East in 2009, the organization had some catching up to do in the IT department
Crystal Ball: Toward True Enterprise Image Management
As the potential role of informatics in transforming health care gains national attention, how are IT tools for imaging and image management evolving to improve clinical efficiency and bolster quality of care?
Improving Health Care: There Are Apps for That
If Dan Hesse had told you, 25 years ago, that you’d be reviewing studies, monitoring patients…
Academic PACS: It’s Not Elementary, Watson
In the late 1990s, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, implemented its first PACS
UPMC’s Rasu Shrestha, MD, MBA: Improving the Value Proposition of Imaging Informatics
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), with 20 affiliated hospitals and 30 imaging centers in western Pennsylvania, could be seen as ground zero in the effort to digitize medicine.
Enterprise Image Management: Bringing Cardiology Into the Fold
Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) is the public health-care system for the nation’s third most populous county (Harris County, Texas); with 44 locations, it generates 420,000 radiology procedures and 70,000 cardiology procedures each year.
Building the Fully Loaded HIE: Images on Board
With a health IT stimulus package valued at $19 billion1 in play, one of the least controversial subjects in the health-reform debate is the potential of health information exchanges (HIEs) to lower health care costs while improving efficiency and quality of care.
High Hurdles for HITECH Dollars
The indefinite path to qualifying for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act funds just came into greater focus, but it’s not to everyone’s liking.
HIE on the Horizon
In an attempt to aggregate health information beyond the proprietary realm of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, Frank C. Clark, PhD, MUSC’s vice president of IT and CIO, currently is spearheading efforts to partner with several other health care organizations in the area to form a health information exchange (HIE).
Interoperability: An Open-source Toolkit
Within radiology, interoperability and sharing information are among our most challenging and important tasks.
The CIO Perspective: Issues in Image Management
Gone are the days when radiology managed image data in a silo: CIOs are engaged in imaging informatics.
Leveraging IT for Better Service
Don Trexler, CEO of Baton Rouge Radiology Group (BRRG) in Louisiana, wants his practice to be different from a typical imaging group.
Marooned on Level 3: Leverage IT to Improve Reporting
In a December 2 session at RSNA 2009 in Chicago, Illinois, on using next-generation health care IT to improve radiology, David Avrin, MD, PhD, radiologist at the University of California–San Francisco Medical Center, opened with a comment made to him by one of his hospital administrators
Federated-model HIE Connects 16 Unaffiliated Hospitals
When the 16 hospitals of the Western North Carolina Health Network (WNCHN) sat down to create a federated model for a health information exchange (HIE) four years ago, they could find no examples of unaffiliated institutions sharing health data, so WNCHN essentially began with a tabula rasa.
Catching Up With the Future: The Radiology of Tomorrow
The future is here—it just hasn’t made it to radiology yet.
Toward True Globalization: The Air Force and PACS
Sharing images across any health care enterprise represents a challenge, but doing so across the Pacific Rim was the dilemma faced in 2003 by the US Air Force.
Extending Advanced Visualization Across Multiple Departments
Among the virtues of thin-client 3D advanced visualization are ease and economy of deployment across an enterprise.
Software Allows Virtual PET/MRI Fusion
It was a difficult, but not uncommon, neuroradiology case: A patient suffered seizures, but had, a year before, been cleared of the possibility of epilepsy by a radiologist looking at an MRI study of the patient’s brain.
The Transformational Effects of Informatics on the Practice of Radiology: A Roundtable Discussion
On October 6, 2009, four physicians gathered in Stamford, Connecticut, to participate in a discussion moderated by Cheryl Proval, Radinformatics.com editorial director.
State of the Technology: Geoffrey Rubin, MD, on 3D Visualization
As CT technology continues to advance and the number of slices in a given exam grows exponentially.
At the Intersection of Radiology and the EHR
A tight interface between electronic patient records and PACS does more than further the ARRA objective of improving the quality of health care; it also has significant medicolegal and economic implications
Enterprise Visualization: The CIO Story
When contemplating implementation of an enterprise-wide advanced visualization solution, expect to hear many concerns voiced by various stakeholders—and look for the CIO’s voice to be front and center among them.
RIS Migration at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center
It’s as extreme a transition as any IT professional could imagine: moving from a remotely hosted RIS to a fully integrated RIS/PACS over the course of just a few short months.
View From the Podium: Stanford MDCT Face-Off
By stipulation, there were to be no winners when eight vendors of advanced imaging workstations and their physician teams competed in the Seventh Annual Original Workstation Face-off
PACS Nirvana: University Radiology’s Reporting-driven Workflow
Ever since digital imaging liberated radiologists from the site of image acquisition.
Trends and Tactics for IT Spending
HIMSS: Operating expenses exceed capital costs.
Storage Dilemmas in the MDCT World
Beware the seven myths of PACS storage.
Improving the Hospital-practice IT Interface
A great place to begin improving the interoperability of health care informatics is where the radiology practice and the hospital intersect
Can Health Informatics Reduce Health Care Costs?
The answer to that question may appear obvious to imaging informatics professionals.
Visage Imaging CEO David Chambers: On the Future of Health Care IT
Earlier this year, Pro Medicus Ltd., the Australia-based RIS provider, acquired Visage Imaging.
In the Navy: The DoD and the Future of PACS
The US Navy deployed its first PACS-a military-specified system with limited functionality-in 1996.
A Virtual Coup: The Server Room of the Future
The server requirements of any modern hospital are daunting.
Enterprise Visualization in the Pediatric Environment
The worst advanced visualization system in the world for a pediatric setting is one wherein the only way that referring physicians from across the organization can see 3D reconstructions of diagnostic images is by physically visiting a radiologist at his or her workstation.
ARRA Opportunities and Risks
More is unknown than known about how the $19.2 billion allocated to health IT by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will be awarded and who will be eligible to receive funds.
Radiology and the Economic Stimulus Act
The authors believe that the ARRA largely leaves the specialty out in the cold
Hosted RIS: An Efficient Alternative
When Vanderbilt Imaging Services LLC, the freestanding outpatient radiology practice associated with Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn, opened its doors in 1999, the center decided to implement an alternative to the traditional RIS configuration: a hosted RIS.
Thin-client Enterprise Visualization: A Top-down View
Say that Amazon.com operated using a thick-client model (it doesn’t, but pretend it does for argument’s sake).
Reinventing Medical Imaging
I recently attended a very interesting and intellectually stimulating conference for top leaders in the field of outpatient imaging services.
Masters of Manipulation
Radiologists and vendors race to grasp and improve the tools of advanced visualization as imaging modalities churn out ever more information
Is Custom Reporting Difficult?
Completing a customized report using RIS data-mining software (or some other system) is simply a matter of learning a little technology
Data Mining: Imaging Executives Crunch the Numbers
RIS data, keyed to billing, can be analyzed to improve competitive capability and pare inefficiency to the nub
Through Thick and Thin: The MGH Search for a 3D Solution
Imagine that you run a large city, and that up until now, the sole transportation available has been buses—but with the price of automobiles coming down, citizens suddenly want to drive cars.
Maximizing RIS Potential
The IT needs of today’s radiology practices are ever evolving, and investing in the latest information solutions can be vital to the survival of a business in an increasingly cost-focused marketplace.
The Economic Advantages of Thin-client Technology
Clear clinical benefits have resulted from the widespread adoption of multidetector CT (MDCT) technology, as well as from the use of advanced, contrast-enhanced, and functional MRI applications.
Change Management: Influencing the Uneasy Alliance Between Man and Machine
No one faces a constantly changing landscape more than the CIO at a large health care institution.
How I Do It: Using 3D MRI to Identify High-risk Vascular Disease
Stroke and heart attack are major killers, not only in the Western world but, increasingly, throughout the developing industrial nations.
IT’s Cross-functional Business Agenda
Increasingly, radiology-practice CIOs and their hospital counterparts are being called on to interact with leadership across the organization to help drive strategic initiatives.
PACS/RIS Replacement: Cheating the Big Bang
Replacing technology is always nerve-wracking, but it is particularly volatile when the systems being replaced are a PACS and a RIS, systems at the heart of daily function for radiology departments and hospitals.
When Worlds Collide: Integrating Radiology and Cardiology Imaging
On August 24, 2008, Good Samaritan Hospital, Vincennes, Ind, became the first site in the country to go live with integration between the Synapse PACS from FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA Inc, Stamford, Conn.
Patricia Whelan, MHA, CIO: Leading Shield’s E-strategy Charge
Armed with a master’s degree in health administration from Ohio State, Patricia Whelan, MHA, went to work for Ohio State Medical Center in 1993.
Information Theft: How to Prevent It
What do hospital administrators and their CIOs fear above all else?
Avoiding Nightmare PACS Outages
Preparation is the difference between unexpected PACS downtime and a nightmare, Michael D. Toland told his audience in Seattle on May 17 at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine.
Long-term Data Management and Migration for PACS
PACS data migration is so important that every PACS acquisition should include a plan for outbound migration at the end of that system’s life.
How I Do It: Maximizing Efficiency in CTA Interpretation
They’re coming, and in many hospitals, they have already arrived: multidetector CT (MDCT), CT angiography (CTA), and advanced 3D imaging.
Advance Preparation Is Key to Smooth Migration
When John Mowry, digital imaging manager at Cook’s Children’s Health Care System, Fort Worth, Tex, decided to switch from his legacy PACS to a thin-client, Web-based model, he faced a particularly daunting migration situation.
Role of the Practice CIO
The adoption of PACS by radiology practices has added a new member to their executive committees: the CIO.
Leverage PACS IT Support to Grow Referrals
While radiology practices and imaging center operators spend heavily on marketing liaisons to help cement favorable referral patterns, few understand the role that hands-on PACS IT support can play.
My PET/CT Experience: Adding a New Modality to PACS
It was a Tuesday afternoon when I received the call. The new PET/CT scanner was installed, and acceptance testing was about to begin, but my medical physicist informed me that PACS was not listed as a destination.
Grow Your Multisite Business With a Single Sign-on Solution
Six months ago, Jesse Salen, vice president of sales and technology for Online Radiology Medical Group (ORMG), Riverside, Calif, found himself in a situation familiar to many radiology practices.
Intersociety Conference Urges Adoption of Structured Reports
Aside from referrers’ clear-cut preference for structured reports, radiologists have added cause to adopt the use of structured reporting.
A CIO at the Table
Most radiology practices have not invited their CIOs onto the executive committee, but a recent survey from the Center for CIO Leadership suggests that it may be time to set another place at the table.
Advanced Visualization: A Do-it-yourself Approach
With three-dimensional and other advanced visualization tools being used for a greater share of CT and other imaging studies.
In-house vs Outsource for 3D: A Questionnaire for Determining the Breakeven Point
It’s coming. In many hospitals, it has already arrived. We’re talking about multidetector CT (MDCT), CT angiography, and advanced 3D imaging.
Enterprise PACS: A Good Thing for Radiology?
PACS took 20 years to mature as a technology in radiology, and it is a necessity today for cost-effective, productive imaging operations.
Get on Board With Virtualized Servers
As any PACS administrator can attest, the cost of advanced imaging technology is higher than the price of a new CT or PET scanner.
The 3D Imaging Lab:In-house or Outsource?
Staying abreast with (or, better yet, staying ahead of) the imaging-technology curve clearly follows a clinical imperative.
Look, No Hands: Reports Go Directly to Referrer EMRs
John Griffith, CIO of Epic Imaging, Portland, Ore, says, “They asked us for it, and we had to come up with a solution.”
Better Than Aspirin: Modality Testing and Troubleshooting
Why does it typically take several days to get a new modality up and running, from a connectivity perspective?
CIIP Update: Getting Certified Got Easier
There’s no single textbook, and no specified curriculum.
When Disaster Means No Recovery
Does turning to a PACS vendor for disaster archiving add certainty and ease to the recovery process when a mishap occurs and images must be retrieved or a PACS database must be reestablished? One New York hospital’s radiology department thought so.
College, 3D Lab Partner in Web-based Advanced Visualization Training
The nation’s first curriculum-based program for volumetric imaging began as do many collaborations between local businesses and technical colleges.
Wake Radiology Reduces Risk with Tier II+ Data Center
In the fall of 2005, 58-member Wake Radiology found itself feeling vulnerable.
Achieving Return on a Dedicated 3D Service
A dedicated 3D service can improve patient care and enhance operational efficiency.
IT as Gatekeeper: Who’s on PACS?
Allowing physicians, whether they are referrers or outside specialists, access to an outpatient radiology practice’s PACS is a subject that is being discussed with increasing frequency among CIOs.
Radia Homogenizes Client Base with Homegrown Worklist
The PACS has come a long way since its inception, enabling communications among all imaging stakeholders in a hospital or health system.
PACS Administrator Success Indicators
What does it take to be a successful PACS administrator? As we work with clients across the country, we are commonly asked this question.
Quick Tips to Maximize your PACS Site Visit
Selecting a PACS vendor is a long process requiring a significant amount of due diligence.
Data and Destiny: A Conversation with Commissure CEO Michael Mardini
The mantra for practice management in the post-DRA era is data management, and everyone knows how much data a radiology practice can produce.
