Radiologists are putting patients at the center of care with the use of 3D modeling in surgical treatment planning. By leveraging image overlay tools available on FUJIFILM Medical’s Synapse 3D solution, radiologists at Keck Hospital, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital, Los Angeles, are using volumetric imaging to generate 3D models of organs and other parts of the anatomy.

Medical image storage has become complex: People expect easy access to images, and with the proliferation of electronic health records (EHR), this includes physicians. Vendor-neutral archive (VNAs) technology provides a single consolidated enterprise image management system, eliminating silo storage of specialized images.

When the development team at Viztek convened to reimagine its current PACS release, the first thing that went onto the white board was “zero footprint viewer—no exceptions.” To make that happen, Viztek approached the company that holds the exclusive patent on the idea of presenting a DICOM image in a Web page to obtain a license from Heart Imaging Technology.

In the year ahead, radiologists must continue to adapt to changes and rise to the evolving challenges delivered by health care reform, including better utilization of available data that are necessary to inform practice decisions and make long-term, significant changes to sustain their businesses, according to Mark Isenberg, Partner of Client Services with Zotec Partners. Isenberg discusses five topics with imagingBiz that should be on the radar for all radiologists in the coming year.

When vRad rolled out its latest “Look in the Mirror” Radiology Patient Care (RPCSM) Indices and Global Practice Information (GPISM) reports this past fall—the latest free-to-subscribers offerings in the company’s mushrooming analytics portfolio—CIO Shannon Werb paused to think back over his first year with the company. Driving change was the subject at hand when Werb recently took questions from imagingBiz.

Even when a technologist acquires an ideal image and a radiologist performs a thorough, accurate interpretation, imaging excellence can be negated if the results are not clearly and effectively communicated to referring doctors.

When it comes to dictating radiology reports to produce consistently presented diagnostic evaluations, Benjamin W. Strong, MD (ABR, ABIM), is bullish on two tools: (1) customized speech-to-text software, and (2) flexible diagnostic checklists. In fact, to vRad’s chief medical officer, the evolutionary integration of those two workflow aids—which he has been using himself and refining for vRad’s 500-plus radiologists over the past 10 years—is structured reporting.

As 2014 winds to a close, three of radiology's brightest thought leaders offer predictions on the year ahead. There is big power in big data. Moving forward into 2015 and beyond, how do radiology practices aggregate data in a way that creates what the world of Silicon Valley has shown us to be the new paradigm? Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle, president and CEO of The Kauffman Group and publisher of ImagingBiz, asks that very question when asked to look ahead.