Company that handles teleradiology reads for urgent care centers adds AI enhancements
Experity, a private equity-backed firm that provides teleradiology “overreads” for urgent care centers, is enhancing its services with artificial intelligence.
Based in Machesney Park, Illinois, the company completes over 5 million radiology studies annually with an average turnaround time of 10.78 minutes for STAT reads and 22.31 for routine interpretations. Experity is now adopting the use of an algorithm for detecting fractures on X-rays, hoping to further boost radiologist productivity and save clinic staff time.
“Adopting AI as a part of our teleradiology overread services helps augment the radiologist’s tasks by pinpointing suspect areas to focus on in a X-Ray, enabling quicker X-ray interpretations so clinics can treat patients more effectively and efficiently,” radiologist Ron Boucher, MD, chief medical officer, teleradiology, at Experity said in a Sept. 17 announcement.
Boucher—also a consulting rad at the Portland, Oregon, VA Medical Center and adjunct professor at Oregon Health and Science University—emphasized that the company is not eliminating physicians.
“AI will not replace radiologists; however, radiologists who do not embrace AI will likely be replaced,” he said.
On average, Experity expects to complete overreads 10% to 15% faster with the help of AI, alongside “improvements in quality of up to 40%.” Experity also recently acquired OnePACS, a software-as-a-service picture archiving and communication system platform “purpose built for teleradiology.” The company bills itself as the “leader” in urgent care telerad services, providing them to nearly 50% of clinics in the U.S.
“This AI integration supports our mission of helping clinics deliver quality and efficient care, further emphasizing the timeliness of scan reads and positioning our organization as a market leader in new technology adoption,” CEO and Co-founder David Stern, MD, said in the same announcement.
Private equity firm GTCR acquired a majority stake in Experity two years ago in partnership with Stern. Fellow PE firm Warburg Pincus was the seller, retaining a minority stake after the 2022 transaction, with those involved estimating that Experity provided services to 5,700 urgent care centers at the time of the GTCR deal. Before that, Experity was formed through the combination of Practice Velocity and DocuTAP in 2019. Teleradiology Specialists, Clockwise MD, Urgent Care Consultants, the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, and the Institute of Urgent Care Medicine were also part of the merger.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.