February/March 2019

Some questions never seem to stop coming up. Should every single incidental finding be reported? If so, how so? In what sorts of cases might the reporting mislead clinicians rather than appropriately guide patient care? Here’s a fresh look at these perpetual concerns. 

When it comes to acquiring medical equipment, the decision on what make, model and options to choose is often easier than how to pay for the shiny new hardware. And the bigger the layout of dollars, the knottier the tangle of choices.

RBJ asked for—and received—in-depth answers to six high-level questions about data analytics. What all these Q&A sets have in common is the supplying of a fresh insight or two (or three) into tapping data for its power to prove value and bolster the bottom line.

More than a few malpractice suits have been advanced on easily understood emotion over hard-to-parse scientific evidence. It’s better to be cautious now than to get caught off guard later. Here’s how to prepare.

If some form of practice consolidation is in your radiology practice’s present or future, you should know that many tactical errors are made around the difficulty of sharing information across disparate legacy PACS packages and other peripheral solutions used by newly conjoining practices, departments or organizations. 

A funny thing happened on the way to PaRADigm 2019, the upcoming annual meeting of the Radiology Business Management Association. Where RBMA usually draws speaking proposals from 50 or 60 potential presenters, this time nearly 90 came in. That was far more than the 42 slots allotted for breakouts, so the association will have plenty of material to pick from as it organizes webinars and other educational events over the coming months. 

Those of us who’ve seen Generation Y progress from the digital playground to places alongside us in the workplace sometimes make too much of our differences. We tie ourselves in knots trying to figure out what makes members of this generation tick. What unleashes their endorphins. What we must do to “meet them where they are.” 

Whenever advanced imaging for low-back pain gets knocked as the “poster child” for overutilization in U.S. healthcare—not an uncommon occurrence—the context of the charge tends to waft away, unconsidered. That’s problematic. To be sure, lumbar-spine MRI in particular has a dicey cost-benefit proposition all its own. The scan’s technical component alone can ring up a bill north of $3,000.