Imaging Advantage Lands $6M Health Care Innovation Award

Among the second wave of DHHS Health Care Innovation Awards announced this week was a $6 million meaningful use grant to the Santa Monica, CA-based Imaging Advantage.According to DHHS, the money is part of an award provided by the Affordable Care Act. In conjunction with Vanguard Health Systems and other Chicago-area hospital systems, the company will aim to improve efficiencies and patient safety while reducing unnecessary imaging. Imaging Advantage has dubbed the project it will fund, “The right exam, at the right time, read by the right radiologist”—the slogan of the Society for Nuclear Medicine public information campaign—and aims to save $15 million over three years in improvement to Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. “Most importantly, this program aims to reduce or eliminate inappropriate advanced imaging utilization that would be redundant or clinically unnecessary,” read an Imaging Advantage press release accompanying the announcement. “It would reduce CT use by a projected 30% that would result in $7 million in savings for CMS and significantly reduce radiation exposure for patients,” according to the statement.