There are six key challenges radiology departments must face following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new perspective piece published Sunday.
The Association of University Radiologists just recently held its fifth annual roundtable for leaders in academia and the imaging industry. Those in attendance represented top trade groups (RSNA, the American College of Radiology), academic institutions, and radiology vendors such as Sectra, Siemens, Philips, GE Healthcare and Fujifilm. All told, 16 radiologists and 14 vendor execs attended the virtual event in May.
Several important themes emerged, with a particular focus on solutions to sustain clinical productivity, innovation and physician well-being.
“The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has resulted in unprecedented effects upon healthcare practice, with major resulting changes that will affect all medical specialties,” Omer Awan, MD, the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s associate vice chair of education, and colleagues wrote Sept. 5 in Academic Radiology. “The need for social distancing, with consequent need to promote the practice of teleradiology, has challenged both academia and industry to reevaluate optimal delivery and access to patient care.”
Here’s a quick rundown of six important themes that emerged from the event:
1. Resilience: COVID-19 fatigue has led to greater attention to physician and employee burnout. Radiology departments must begin to address this concern by providing adequate staffing, fostering camaraderie, and building organizational resilience.
2. Disparities: The pandemic has also laid bare already-existing inequities in the healthcare system, with minority populations suffering worse outcomes from the virus. Awan et al. suggested hiring diverse teams, bolstering imaging access in underserved communities and “providing high-reliability imaging solutions.”
3. Telehealth: Patients have come to expect the option to receive services virtually, while providers embraced working remotely. Electronic health records, picture archiving and communication systems and artificial intelligence solutions all require tackling interoperability roadblocks and ensuring integration between disparate IT systems, the authors advised.
4. Prioritization: As COVID-19 has required radiologists to innovate on the fly, imaging leaders have been forced to determine which changes should receive the most attention in the near-term. Awan and co-authors urged providers to ask whether innovation should occur through a series of isolated incidents or a “disciplined and structured” approach.
5. Sustainability: The pandemic has raised questions about radiology’s greater role in addressing societal issues such as climate change. Healthcare causes upward of 4.6% of CO2 emissions, the authors noted. And advancements in teleradiology present the opportunity to not only improve access and clinician satisfaction, but also reduce the specialty’s impact on the environment.
6. Preparation: Many radiology departments were not ready to face a challenge like the novel coronavirus back in March 2020. Experts emphasized the importance of creating new business models to prepare for the next public health crisis and forming solid relationships with industry vendors to confront this concern.
“Through continuous collaboration and conversations between academia and industry, many of these proposed solutions can be refined and hopefully realized in the era to come after the pandemic,” the authors concluded.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.