Coming soon to a health system near you: ‘network radiology’
Radiology that facilitates the sharing of resources and touchpoints within an enterprise but across geographic locales is the future of the specialty, according to two Harvard radiology researchers.
Calling this practice model “network radiology,” Atul Shinagare, MD, and Ramin Khorasani, MD, MPH, both of Mass General Brigham, note the in-common resources optimally include EHR, PACS, dictation and result communication software.
Shinagare and Khorasani link their prescription for embracing such a network practice model to change in healthcare accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Up to now, they note, radiology models at large health systems typically involved operating a dedicated radiology practice at most every site in the system. “Unfortunately, this model cannot meet [growing] patient and referrer demands for high-quality subspecialized reads at all locations.”
The paper is running in the February edition of the Korean Journal of Radiology [1].
Under a network radiology model, patients could be scanned at any location, all the imaging studies could be pooled in a central data warehouse, and the radiologists from various locations could access these studies on shared PACS, Shinagare and Khorasani explain.
What’s more, since all networked radiologists would comprise a unified effort, they could distribute cases and work lists based on reader availability and subspecialization.
“Network radiology is also more amenable to efficient workflows and quality improvement initiatives because all the new initiatives can be easily expanded to all the network sites without each site having to create their own workflows,” Shinagare and Khorasani write.
Other statements characterizing the network delivery model the authors envision:
- Patients are the primary beneficiaries of the network radiology practice because even patients in remote locations benefit from the subspecialty expertise of the academic medical center, leading to more equitable care.
- The hospital/healthcare system benefits from more efficient resource allocation and by providing better, patient-centric care.
- There are also several educational opportunities whereby creation of a common set of educational tools, such as virtual lectures and online teaching resources, benefit all the radiologists across the network. Traditionally, radiologists at remote locations could not benefit from the expertise and education available at the academic medical centers.
Among the challenges Shinagare and Khorasani warn adopters to anticipate, cost and effort around sharing EHR, PACS and other complex and expensive IT-based systems land at the top.
“In our network, creation of these resources required a significant financial commitment from the institution, several years of planning and execution, and efforts from numerous individuals and teams,” the authors share. “It also required a change of practice for many sites as they adapted to the new systems.”
However:
Once these shared resources were created, many (such as EHR) were applicable to areas outside of radiology and, overall, there was a significant and long-term improvement in the radiology services.”
Shinagare and Khorasani wrap their case by underscoring that healthcare systems “continue to evolve, and radiology practices must adapt to remain viable and to meet the demands of various stakeholders.”
More:
In an era where many hospital/health systems are growing and consolidating, network radiology is the future of our specialty. It allows easy, equitable access to imaging services for the patients, and allows the radiologists to provide high quality, subspecialized care even in remote locations, with the added potential to improve efficiency as well as work-life balance for the radiologists.”
The paper is available in full for free.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.