Rural U.S. populations often suffer poor access to healthcare services. The cracks many patients fall through are not the fault of radiology per se. However, researchers and rural radiologists agree that much imaging ground must be gained if location-based disparities are to be cut down to size.
Notwithstanding the hopes and fears around AI, medical 3D printing is the emerging technology that could help pull radiology into the realm of the indispensable. Thanks to progress toward permanent billing codes, the future of reimbursable 3D printing is taking shape.
Despite authoritative voices reassuring radiologists that artificial intelligence will never seriously cull their workforce, speculation to the contrary continues. In fact, some of the prognosticators most certain about likely job losses are radiologists themselves.
We sought out a handful of radiology executives, directors and managers who started out as radiologic technologists. They share their stories, talk about radiology’s present challenges and offer tips for today’s techs hoping to become tomorrow’s leaders.
A machine able to interpret diagnostic imaging studies better than radiologists has long been foreseen, yet its arrival comes almost as a surprise. We have underestimated the potential of AI to perform the kinds of work we do.
A funny thing happened on the way to the printer with this issue of RBJ. In an email exchange, a radiologist who’d spoken with one of our reporters let me know he had more to say on the combustible subject about which he’d been interviewed.
Some questions never seem to stop coming up. Should every single incidental finding be reported? If so, how so? In what sorts of cases might the reporting mislead clinicians rather than appropriately guide patient care? Here’s a fresh look at these perpetual concerns.
When it comes to acquiring medical equipment, the decision on what make, model and options to choose is often easier than how to pay for the shiny new hardware. And the bigger the layout of dollars, the knottier the tangle of choices.
Last spring RBJ put out a call for entrants to compete in its inaugural Imaging Innovation Awards. We opened the contest to all private radiology practices and hospital radiology departments that had recently completed a project combining creative thinking with coordinated teamwork to develop a notably original breakthrough in some particular aspect of medical imaging.
Imaging clinical decision support has long been widely considered a “when, not if” technology. But the smart money says to hold off at least a while longer before declaring the coast completely clear. What’s the holdup? In a word, complexity.
