Meet a teleradiology practice on the cusp of great—yet manageable—growth
Six years ago, two radiologists with dissimilar backgrounds and divergent clinical interests put their heads together and launched a new practice. One physician was an academic subspecialized in musculoskeletal reads. The other, a private practitioner, concentrated on oncologic imaging.
The two had often crossed paths over the years before realizing both had an increasingly keen interest in one operating model that could bridge all subspecialties: teleradiology.
That’s how Transparent Imaging was born, powered by Konica Minolta.
Today the practice feeds work to almost 200 U.S. radiologists and counting. Collectively they read more than a million studies per year across all radiology subspecialties. That includes granular niches called on only occasionally such as pediatric PET, pediatric neuroimaging and fetal MRI, to name just three examples.
The practice’s present plan is to grow to the full extent of its capacity for delivering high-quality radiology reads for patients and referrers far and wide—as long as the growth doesn’t squeeze out in-touch, open-door leadership and management.
The founding leaders—body subspecialist David Zelman, DO, and MSK expert Eric Ledermann DO, MBA—shared the secrets of their success to date in an interview with Radiology Business.
Pieces fell into place
In Dr. Ledermann’s view, two factors emerged as key elements animating their shared vision. One was Dr. Zelman’s business acumen. This, the two agree, was forged in the proving grounds of private-practice radiology in the 2010s.
“It was a time of consolidation, private equity offers and other threats to autonomy and independence,” Dr. Zelman says. “In fact, we’re still in that era.”
The other consideration was refined teleradiology technology. For this both point without hesitation to their years-long partnership with Konica Minolta Healthcare.
“Konica Minolta’s Exa PACS was in place at David’s practice when we first seriously discussed the idea of launching into teleradiology,” Dr. Ledermann recalls. “When we started Transparent in 2019, we built our infrastructure on top of that.”
Past experience pointed to future success
When Drs. Ledermann and Zelman learned the company had built a teleradiology solution based on the successful Exa PACS and Exa Platform integrated with AI-enabled solutions in 2025, they immediately put the latter on their wish list.
Konica Minolta unveiled the new platform—Exa Teleradiology, Powered by NewVue—in May 2025 and commercialized it in August 2025.
The new offering provides a workflow orchestrator integrated with the Exa Viewer by NewVue, the Tampa, Florida-based developer of cloud-based, AI-driven workflow software for radiology.
“We did our due diligence shopping the marketplace,” reports Dr. Zelman. “In fact, we looked at nearly every solution out there. As we’d suspected, no other vendor’s products matched Exa Teleradiology for intelligent design and ease of use.”
Dr. Ledermann adds that the two practice leaders felt “very comfortable” with the direction Konica Minolta recommended for Transparent Imaging. “Their communications were attentive and their lines of access wide open,” he says. “We knew we needed that kind of close support as we grew from a large teleradiology organization into an even bigger one with niche services and specialized needs.”
“Now as in the past, Konica Minolta listened carefully to our hopes and concerns,” Dr. Zelman says. “They’ve been with us from the beginning and will be with us all along the way going forward.”
Teleradiology from the ground up
With the go-live of Exa Teleradiology scheduled for this year, Drs. Zelman and Ledermann are eager to get their 200 or so radiologists fully up to speed on all the system has to offer. That includes components from AI reporting solutions integrated with Exa Teleradiology made by a Konica strategic partner, RADPAIR.
It is Konica Minolta’s vision that a successful teleradiology platform provides a seamless experience for the radiologist that includes the fundamentals of workflow orchestration, specialty viewer and AI reporting.
“For the radiologist, teleradiology is about efficiency, it’s about speed, it’s about accuracy. Exa Teleradiology delivers all of that and more.”
Eric Ledermann, DO, MBA
“The integrated system brings an all-in-one image reading solution that is simple, streamlined and able to serve up imaging studies acquired at any site,” a Konica Minolta product expert told Radiology Business in an interview earlier this fall. “If a radiology practice were to acquire all these technologies individually, they would pay three to four times what Exa Teleradiology gives them at a fixed rate.”
Cloud-based and AI-enabled, Exa Teleradiology integrates an AI-curated intelligent worklist, a radiologist cockpit, zero-footprint diagnostic viewer and numerous workflow features. These include peer review, critical results management and technologist quality improvement.
“For the radiologist, teleradiology is about efficiency, it’s about speed, it’s about accuracy,” Dr. Ledermann says. “We want to make sure image quality is going to be super high, and we believe Exa Teleradiology delivers that.”
“Viewer speed is very important too,” Dr. Zelman adds. “How fast can you load images? How easy is it to drag and drop images and start reading your cases almost instantaneously? That’s a very big piece of this.”
No less important to Drs. Ledermann and Zelman is Konica Minolta’s reputation for technical reliability. The company’s data center holds more than 6 million petabytes of data from more than 200 Konica Minolta customers while maintaining an uptime rate of 99.9%.
Telling testimonials
During the interview, the physicians offered myriad reasons for recommending Exa Teleradiology and, with it, Konica Minolta. Here are a few snapshots of what they see as positives and priorities:
“Exa Teleradiology gives our radiologists a solid platform on which to express their joy in practicing radiology.”
David Zelman, DO
- “It’s important for a vendor to know what it’s great at, what it’s good at and, no less important, what functionalities call for another vendor to chip in a sub-expertise. This is definitely something I look for in a technology supplier. Given the multi-vendor coordination Konica is doing with Exa Teleradiology, it’s obvious Konica Minolta plays very well with other vendors.”—Eric Ledermann, DO
- “When we bring suggestions or ideas to the Konica Minolta team—whether the feedback is coming from our overnight emergency team or our subspecialists—Konica Minolta is always ready to listen. They’re not afraid to totally reimagine how their product could be better. And then they solve every snag with a smart, contained solution rather than a broad, one-size-fits-all stroke.”—David Zelman, DO
- “Teleradiology has transformed life for a lot of our radiologists. All work 100% from their homes, and all love doing so. They’re using their full skillsets at work, which adds to job satisfaction, and they’re doing it without shortchanging their families on time or constantly putting their outside interests on the back burner. Exa Teleradiology is an element of that. It gives our radiologists a solid platform on which to express their joy in practicing radiology. That, to me, is what Transparent Imaging should be all about.”—David Zelman, DO
Dr. Ledermann situates Transparent Imaging’s adoption of Exa Teleradiology in an even broader context.
“I’d wanted to be a radiologist since I was 6 years old,” he says. “My mother still has my crayon drawing showing me holding up a black square, which is supposed to be an X-ray. With our rollout of Exa Teleradiology, I’m more excited than ever to be a radiologist. I believe the future of Transparent Imaging is just that bright.”
To learn more about Exa Teleradiology—including the Exa ecosystem of which it is a vital part—click here. In addition, RSNA 2025 attendees are invited to meet Konica product experts in person at booth #2165.
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.