Beam up a radiologist, Scotty
Step into one radiology reading room in Detroit and you may think you’ve been beamed into Captain Kirk’s bridge inside the Starship Enterprise.
That’s because Imaging Advantage, the national radiology practice headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., modeled the center on a blueprint of the iconic “Star Trek” set.
“We didn’t see why health care should look and feel like hospitals in the 21st century,” Naseer Hashim, chief exec and self-proclaimed sci-fi fan, told the Wall Street Journal. “We have real-time visibility into every exam at every facility.”
Imaging Advantage partnered with the Detroit Medical Center and Vanguard Health Systems to build the center. “Instead of the Galactic quadrant, the view from the bridge consists of individual patient’s scans and other input from across the company’s network of 400 radiologists,” writes Amy Or, who covers private equity doings.
The reading room may have caught Or’s eye while she was reporting for Dow Jones on Imaging Advantage’s raising of up to $250 million from Centurion Resource Group. No stranger to deep-pocketed investors, the radiology practice is backed by Goldman Sachs and Brightwood Capital Advisors.
Last fall Imaging Advantage acquired BRIT Systems, the Dallas-based supplier of RIS, PACS and such. A few days later BRIT rolled out an innovative reading-services program it’s calling the Collaborative Radiology Pool.
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.