Prime Healthcare's regional chief medical officer, director of breast imaging and the CEO of its radiology partner cover the economics of a pay-per-read model, how this AI-native solution blends onsite and teleradiology, how radiologists and referrers can easily confer and communicate and the automated guardrails that keep speed from eroding report quality. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of why this new model is the future of radiology. 

Interventional radiologist Mairaj Uddin, MD, knew he’d gotten himself into something good when he saw his teammates work through a backlog of 3,000 imaging studies in just three days.  

Many know Sol Radiology as the Southern California-based practice that, in this decade, grew from three radiologists to 45 in only three years. But other key indicators of Sol’s development might be the pieces from which presently small practices stand to learn the most. 

Many if not most healthcare AI vendors market tweaked versions of large language models developed by other, usually larger companies. The lack of originality isn’t just a superficial concern. It may burden adopting healthcare organizations with practical, clinical and even legal risks. For clients of the radiology technology company CIVIE, formerly known as Collaborative Imaging, those worries are soon to be things of the past. 

If explosive growth is a sure sign of astute planning, Sol Radiology has some of the best strategists in the business. As recently as late 2022, the Southern California practice had three radiologists serving one hospital. Today it’s a 45-physician force reading for 25 sites and running three of its own imaging centers. 

Dhruv Chopra started his career in radiology as a courier for a small practice. His duties included shuttling imaging orders, CDs and radiology reports between the practice, referrers and client imaging centers. He learned to endure city traffic jams like a street-hardened cabbie. Today he’s chief executive officer of a thriving company delivering high-tech solutions to radiology practices of all sizes. 

The radiologists at San Luis Diagnostic Center, a multimodality outpatient facility in California, are happy to do it all: mammography, CT scans, ultrasound, X-rays, MRI, and more. There’s one aspect of their radiology practice that they’re excited to hand off, however: billing and negotiations with third-party payers. Especially now that they’re sure they’re getting paid for all of their exams and interpretations, and at a market rate.

This practice expanded from 3 to 60 radiologists in under 2 years, without private equity overlords. Here’s how.