I am pleased to announce a new addition to our comprehensive news and information portal in the form of a series of video commentaries. Within these occasional commentaries, I will take the opportunity to discuss the implications for medical imaging leaders of the various trends and issues facing our profession. This first video is a brief

Digital health care gives patients a new opportunity to engage with their care providers on an unprecedented scale. With the electronic exchange of health information, consumers can access their medical records electronically, share them with providers, and make informed decisions. These advances in health IT make possible better consumer engagement, as well as more efficient and effective care.

Advanced visualization technology in imaging continues to garner acceptance within the radiology arena, yielding improvements in practice patterns and opportunities for enhanced cooperation with clinicians. Sanjay Prabhu, MBBS, FRCR, is a staff radiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts and director of Boston Children’s Advanced

In 2007, Metro Imaging, a radiology group with five outpatient imaging centers in St Louis, Missouri, launched a program in which patients could opt to receive their preliminary results following their exams, in as few as five to 10 minutes. Harley Hammerman, MD, CEO of Metro Imaging, says, “When patients come in, they are given cards with their

For 2012, James Reinertsen, MD, CEO of the Reinertsen Group, was invited by the ACR® to deliver the Moreton Lecture at the college’s Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. Reinertsen, a former hospital executive who now educates hospitals and health systems on issues of quality and safety, presented “Possible or

Adams Diagnostic Imaging (ADI), founded in 2006, is an outpatient imaging center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that provides an array of subspecialty services—with just one radiologist on staff. Rahul Smith, executive director of the center, says, “We have one medical director on staff: a board-certified nuclear-medicine radiologist who interprets

How much would an extra $44,000 government stipend mean to your radiology practice? Would it be enough to cover the hassle of diving into the attestation to meaningful use of health IT? To date, many practices have declined to participate, according to David Avrin, MD, PhD, of the University of California–San Francisco. On September 9, in San

While the news crews have moved on to coverage of the final rule for stage 2 meaningful use, the reality is this: The vast majority of radiology practices still has not met the stage 1 requirements. Their greatest challenge is likely to be understanding how the rule applies to their practice setting, and radiology practices are interpreting that in