Within the past 10 years, the topic of physician-performance benchmarking has progressed from contentious to being one on which entire meetings in the radiology community are based. Some industry analysts say that this evolution has occurred because measuring physician performance has become a necessity, in today’s health-care environment, due to

Few processes in radiology are as dreaded as switching from a legacy PACS to a newer replacement. Often approached only when the former PACS is on its last legs, the transition between systems requires diligent selection from an ever-widening field of solutions, lengthy migration of complex (and sometimes flawed) data, and retraining of all

It seems clear that the number of US imaging centers has stopped expanding, and that imaging-center chains are no longer as eager to snap up as many centers as possible. This is not bad news, however. Procedural volumes per imaging center are growing—so the combination of greater demand for imaging and fewer centers competing for those referrals

Nationwide cumulative-dose indices, warning flags in electronic medical records (EMRs), and electronic imaging-history smart cards: All these are being called for to protect patients from excessive radiation exposure. The real advances on this hot-button issue for radiology, however, are taking place at the health-facility level, one patient at a

Rapidly evolving technology capabilities are reason enough to standardize imaging protocols across a health-care enterprise. Add the desire to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and eliminate unnecessary exams by using imaging appropriately, and it is easy to make the case for such a project, particularly in a health-care enterprise with multiple

A new round of physician–hospital alignment is underway—this time, with a broader sweep, according to Craig E. Holm, senior vice president, Health Strategies & Solutions, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and D. Louis Glaser, JD, partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP, Chicago, Illinois. They presented “Employed Physicians: Improving Performance and

While radiologists have served in prominent positions in Washington, DC, in the past, none have ever served as White House fellow and special assistant to the president before the recent appointment of Pat Basu, MD, MBA, as one of 13 men and women to serve in the 2010–2011 class of fellows. An attending radiologist at Stanford University and the VA

The current environment in radiology is changing quickly—and the pace of change is accelerating. Radiologists are accustomed to change. In fact, some would say that radiology is the primary field of change, but never has the pace of change been so rapid. In addition to the new technological developments that are revolutionizing the way that we