February/March 2011

Cardiology and radiology: Are they two specialties working in tandem for optimal patient care or two opposing armies in a turf battle? The answer, of course, is complicated, and can’t be approached without an acknowledgement of the ground already ceded to cardiology.

Radiologists have become PACS experts, sometimes by default. Because diagnostic images made the greatest demands on early information systems in health care, the most sophisticated systems were first developed to handle these images and associated data. These systems became PACS, which grew out of the homegrown image-management systems of academic

Is it goodbye to radiology benefit management (RBM) companies and hello to automated decision-support systems? Not really, as the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, computerized decision-support tools are gaining ground in the outpatient setting.

While the pols dicker about whose health-care bill will save Medicare, a changing of the guard commences at the Office of the National Coordinator, and the states take their concerns to the courts, one thing has become increasingly clear: Without health IT to turn the vast web of discrete clinical, administrative, and financial transactions that is

The lack of consensus (and vision) in the imaging community is readily apparent when the topic of clinical decision support is raised. Clinical decision support allows for electronic documentation of the appropriateness of the imaging service ordered and provided, offering clinicians real-time guidance, rather than black-box rules.

It is no easy task to hit a moving target, so the seven speakers who presented the refresher course, “How Payment Policy Will Impact Technology Development in the 21st Century,” on November 30, 2010, at the annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago, Illinois, diligently colored in the background of the canvas, offering insight into the anatomy of a CPT

In a promising sign of economic recovery, hospital-based radiology decision makers intend to spend 10% more overall on medical-imaging technology this year, according to a new report from KLAS (Orem, Utah). According to Diagnostic Imaging Purchases 2010: Spending Increases, Loyalty Is Tested, providers plan to meet or increase purchases in all

When, today, you go to see suites of hospitals and systems, they have got a grand strategy for what they want to execute in the next 10 years. It’s not an exaggeration to say the whole thing depends on IT. Without IT, it’s not going to change. How different from past reform attempts this will be is due to the power and capability of IT,” James

The looming deadline of January 1, 2012, is prompting many MRI scan providers to apply for accreditation. According to section 135 of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, as of this date, any provider of advanced imaging services billing under Medicare Part B must be accredited to receive payment. Choosing the cheapest service

A thought occurred to me recently, as I worked with a rather large and very successful radiology practice: Radiologists in private practice who have built organizations functioning at high levels have done so, for the most part, without the benefit of a formal education in business. Trial and error, management by instinct, and the force of tenacity