At Sol Radiology, a Smart Digital Ecosystem Fosters Fast Yet Sustainable Growth
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.
What’s more, Sol’s success is measured in more than just headcount. Over the past three years, the practice has improved revenue capture by around 30% while increasing RVU efficiency by 60%. The latter figure reflects the capacity of Sol’s radiologists to read many more studies per shift than they ever could before.
Other small radiology practices would do well to examine the soil in which Sol Radiology’s eye-opening expansion has bloomed. That’s not hard to do, since, as Sol’s leadership points out, their business strategy is both readily repeatable and out in the open.
“Our approach is really nothing more than placing the right technology in the hands of radiology professionals who are ready, willing and able to use it to its full potential,” explains co-leader Krishna Das, MD, who joined Sol in 2023 and subspecializes in interventional radiology and body imaging. “That’s all we’ve done. It’s clearly worked for us in recruitment as well as in dollars and cents.”
Technology being Sol Radiology’s growth elixir raises an obvious question: What technology are we talking about?
And here’s the answer: The full suite of products from the radiology supplier CIVIE.
From RCM support to full digital engagement
Sol began its partnership with CIVIE three years ago. At the time, the company was known by its former name, Collaborative Imaging. Sol had heard good things from another practice about the Texas-based company’s revenue cycle management solution. RCM was all Sol felt it needed.
“Our radiologists started getting paid on time and in full. That was new to us, and it was our first taste of the power of leading-edge, radiology-specific technology.”
Megha Gupta, MD, Sol Radiology co-leader and women’s imaging interventionalist
“The RCM investment brought a quick return,” recalls co-leader Megha Gupta, MD, a women’s imaging and breast interventionalist. “Our radiologists started getting paid on time and in full. That was new to us, and it was our first taste of the power of leading-edge, radiology-specific technology.”
Installations of CIVIE’s full product line beyond RCM—including RIS, PACS, VNA, universal worklist, AI-aided dictation and zero-footprint viewer—soon followed. As the practice added radiologists, software training sessions proceeded apace.
Actually, it was even better than that, says Rahul Nayyar, MD.
“The user interfaces proved so intuitive that most new physicians needed very little technical instruction at all,” explains Nayyar, whose subspecialized expertise extends to interventional radiology. “Nine times out of 10, the implementation was plug and play. That was a revelation, because radiologists don’t like any change that slows them down.”
Radiologists in the center of the action
The three co-leaders agree that there’s a direct correlation between Sol Radiology’s exponential growth and its deployment of CIVIE’s full suite of technologies.
“The components integrate to form a very robust ecosystem,” says Das. “And an ecosystem is exactly what we consider the suite to be. It’s not only all-encompassing but also cloud-based, so it’s both reliable and fast.”
The fully integrated pieces facilitate the seamlessness of the user experience, he adds. Radiologists beginning their workday only need to click a single sign-on link. From there, the CIVIE suite unobtrusively copilots them through their shift.
Among the productivity gains that Sol’s radiologists have realized, thanks to the digital-ecosystem approach as supplied by CIVIE:
The work list module presents studies for reading based on specific rules, balancing the overall workload across the practice. “If we have two radiologists reading at the same time, we know that one is not getting too much and the other too little,” says Gupta. “It also automatically distributes cases based on subspecialty and other factors. And there can be no cherry-picking of desirable cases.”
“Our referring physicians are happier than ever. As for patients, they’re now more involved in their imaging than ever. And when patients are involved in their own care, they tend to have better outcomes.”
Rahul Nayyar, MD, Sol Radiology co-leader and interventional radiologist
An integrated communications module allows radiologists to quickly get in touch with technologists—and vice versa. Gone are the days of calling for a missing image in a series, say, or waiting for a tech to return from a break to communicate the shortfall.
Referring physicians use the same module to offer radiologists feedback on their radiology reports. “It’s as easy as writing a restaurant review with Yelp,” Nayyar says, adding that the system even uses a 5-star rating system. Poor reviews prompt Sol’s leadership to contact the reviewer for further insights and, if needed, course corrections.
The RCM module shows radiologists how much money they’re making per read—in real time. “It’s like an Uber meter on the dashboard,” says Das. “Today’s radiologists want to be paid based on their individual productivity, or they want to be paid based on shift or study or what have you. The CIVIE technology has allowed us to tailor compensation models for each radiologist.”
Since it’s built with application programming interface (API) technology, the CIVIE ecosystem can integrate with any EMR. This allows the software to pull relevant clinical information from a patient’s record as the reading radiologist needs it. “We’ve been very particular in making sure our radiologists have as much information as they need without giving them information they don’t really need for the read,” comments Gupta.
The AI-powered dictation module auto-converts radiology reports into patient-friendly texts. This allows patients as well as referrers to see images, read radiology reports and, if they desire, “translations” of the reports into lay language, Nayyar says. “Everybody wants something different, and they’re all able to get exactly what they want.”
The entire ecosystem respects the right of the patient to have ownership of his or her own medical data. An intelligent patient portal makes this possible. “We were interested in changing the paradigm by which patients were handed CDs containing their images,” says Das. “CDs are a lot of trouble to carry and a big responsibility to safeguard. What medical practice wouldn’t want to give patients more ownership?”
The zero-footprint viewer lets radiologists read whenever they want to and wherever they go. CIVIE has even begun incorporating Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service. “You’d be surprised how many radiologists like to read studies in airplanes, cars, wherever,” says Gupta. “Plus they don’t want to be disrupted if a fiber line goes down or something like that.”
No stakeholder left behind
Sol Radiology’s leadership credits the CIVIE ecosystem for growing the practice from three radiologists to almost 50 in less than three years.
Just as importantly, the team is looking for the technology to keep the momentum and growth going. In fact, they’re banking on the wins to keep coming as CIVIE continues emerging as a leader in AI innovation for radiology.
“Comprehensive digitization enables us to be highly attentive to the needs and preferences of all three stakeholders in the imaging process—the patient, the referrer and the radiologist.”
Krishna Das, MD, Sol Radiology co-leader and interventional radiologist
“What this comprehensive digitization makes possible is attentiveness to the needs and preferences of all three stakeholders in the imaging process—the patient, the referrer and the radiologist,” says Das. “Today all three are receiving the same information, and all three know that the info is being shared among and between them. That’s very powerful.”
“Our referring physicians are happier than ever with how attentively our radiologists are serving them,” Nayyar adds. “As for patients, they’re now more involved in their imaging than ever. And when patients are involved in their own care, they tend to have better outcomes.”
“Really all we’re doing with this digital ecosystem is letting radiologists be radiologists,” says Gupta. “They can sit and read and have everything they need right at their fingertips. Eyes on images—that’s always the aim.”
“I really think this is the formula for success in radiology right now,” Gupta concludes. “And it will remain the formula for success in radiology for the foreseeable future.”
To learn more about CIVIE’s integrated digital ecosystem, click here.
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.