August/September 2017

In 1994, Rosabeth Moss Kanter coined the phrase “collaborative leadership” in Harvard Business Review to describe the leadership skills and attributes needed to successfully develop and manage interorganizational strategic alliances.1 The authors of a 2014 book, New Leadership for Today’s Health Care Professionals, also explored this concept, explaining that collaborative leadership requires a leader who can achieve success by motivating individuals in multiple organizations while bringing together and aligning the goals of many stakeholders.2

Radiology has been intertwined with information technology in a generally enthusiastic, if occasionally uneasy, embrace for the better part of four decades. What does this mean for radiologists right now and going forward? To hash out that question, we assembled a panel of four practicing radiologists with leadership-level expertise in IT and informatics:

When Verlon Salley, MHA, CRA, arrived six years ago as executive director of radiology at UPMC’s Presbyterian and Shadyside Hospitals in Pittsburgh, he vowed to give his staff a more powerful voice. It was more than mere lip service. Consider: he sat down with a patient care aide who had 40 years with the organization and asked for her candid thoughts on how to improve personnel engagement.

Large Outpatient Providers Are Adapting, but Can Smaller Businesses Survive?

Earlier this year, a bill known as HB 1036 passed in the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate and was subsequently signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Sponsored by Texas Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston), the law requires all commercial insurance providers in Texas to cover the cost of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT, also known as 3D mammography) for all patients.

I still vividly remember the protocol for a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis from 1993. “Give two cups of barium to drink one hour prior to scanning, two cups 30 minutes prior to scanning and one cup on the table just before scanning,” it read. “Parameters included 5-mm scans with a 1.5-mm pitch helically, from domes of the diaphragm to the iliac crest with axial images through the pelvis.” These were the notes handwritten by our chief radiologist for each and every patient requiring the protocol. There were never any shortcuts taken or shorthand used; each protocol was painstakingly written.

Positive leadership is the only effective way to lead a radiology department. If you’ve decided to take on a leadership position, then why not create a positive, non-threatening environment that will help increase morale, reduce turnover, increase revenues and make your department a more positive place to work? From a business perspective, it’s the only path that makes sense.

The Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) wrapped up a successful SIIM 2017 in Pittsburgh earlier this summer, and now its members are preparing for the second annual Conference on Machine Intelligence in Medical Imaging (C-MIMI) in September.