2009 April

When at first you dont succeed, try, try again. That old adage was put to work when physicians from the radiology and pathology departments at the University of Kansas Medical Center wanted to work more closely in caring for breast cancer patients. A pathology information system, radiology PACS and video-conferencing system were the enablers for the two specialties to reach across the digital divide and hold weekly virtual conferences to discuss breast cancer biopsy findings vs. images. What did they learn? Better diagnosis and patient care arise from communication, correlation and consensus of concordancy between radiology and pathology findings.

Ten years ago, the American College of Radiology surveyed nearly 1,000 practices as to their utilization of teleradiology. They found that 71 percent of multi-radiologist practices had teleradiology systems in place, while 30 percent of solo practices had deployed remote reading systems.

Sit up straight. It may have been nagging advice from your Mom, but its good advice for the radiologist who sits in a digital reading room often for hours at a time. So is putting your feet flat on the floor and maintaining the proper angle of your elbows and hands on the keyboard and eyes to the monitor. Read on. Heeding good advice can ward off musculoskeletal problems that plague the profession.

Healthcare spending in the United States has increased dramatically in the last decade and radiology has been singled out as a main culprit. As imaging volumes increase, reimbursement decreases and competition sharpens, radiology practices and departments must make more effective use of the data and technology available today. Voice recognition (VR) software solutions can help reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve patient care.

The tools for diagnostic radiology and its interpretation have undergone a sea change over the past couple decades. The durable light-box alternator has given way to the desktop workstation and soft-copy interpretation, either on cathode ray tube (CRT) or flat-panel liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

As you know, investment and enrichment in EMRs is the focus of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009which allocates a whopping $19.2 billion to health IT. The numbers have been well-publicized, with $17.2 billion being funneled through the Medicare and Medicaid programs to help providers adopt EHRs and another $2 billion earmarked for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Outside the direct contributions to pay for IT systems, there is another $10.4 million in related spending, according to HIMSS, for telecommunications, broadband and telemedicine.