The ubiquity of mobile computing across society and throughout healthcare has sharply raised expectations around the speed of communications. Where once referring physicians anticipated waits of several days to receive radiology reports, whether by courier, fax or sometimes even snail mail, they now bristle at lag times measured in hours or even minutes. Increasingly, patients want the same for themselves.

When Dane’lle Southern was approached by Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers’ (SDMI) CIO to take on the role of PACS administrator for the company, she initially declined, and remembers thinking she couldn’t possibly be a good fit for the position.

Change is coming to radiology in ways the profession could not have anticipated in a pre-Affordable Care Act world. The forces driving the change are many and varied—economic, regulatory, technology-enabled—but one common denominator has emerged as the “cardiopulmonary system” of the transformation: hospitals under intense pressure to perform in order to survive.

As senior vice president of Integrated Radiology Partners, (IRP) and also president of the Radiology Business Management Association, Keith Chew is a well-respected leader in our industry. He recently spent time with RadAnalytics to talk about his new role with IRP, the importance of applying analytics in radiology, and share his thoughts on radiology’s outlook for 2015.

Paul J. Chang, MD, loves live jazz, hates the ballet—and extends his taste to two different means of wringing useful business intelligence from medical imaging informatics.

In ancient Roman times, all roads led to Rome. From one monument in central Rome, all roads began and distances were measured. Today, the patient is at the center of care—with success measured in wellness, improved outcomes, reduced variability, increased quality and higher patient engagement and patient satisfaction scores. Monumental for sure. But how do we make the patient journey better and how do radiology departments engage to help the process? Global radiology leaders weigh in.

The Information Systems team at Atlanta Medical Center is not only keeping pace with the rate at which technology is evolving in healthcare, they’re taking the lead.

When it comes to the federal meaningful use program, keep your eye on the prize—not the incentive dollars, advised Doug Fridsma, MD, former director, office of science and technology in the Office of the National Coordinator. With complexity rising and dollars declining, the greater objective in your deployment of health IT should be preparation for payment reform.