Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

MGH Decision-support Study: A Shot Across the RBM Bow

Sponsored by Hitachi Healthcare Americas

A new study1 finding that radiology order-entry (ROE) and decision-support (DS) tools act to curtail utilization rates for advanced imaging is being celebrated as proof that a White House proposal to deploy radiology benefit managers (RBMs) as Medicare gatekeepers is unnecessary and ill conceived.

The Future of Hospital-based Outpatient Imaging

Is outpatient imaging on the hospital campus still strategically relevant for hospitals and health systems? If so, what will it take to capture this volume in an increasingly competitive market? These are the two primary questions facing hospitals and health systems as they contemplate their campus-based outpatient imaging strategies.

Productivity Tracking for Radiologists

Because there are not enough radiologists available to meet demand, practices must learn to make the most of radiologists’ available time, according to a paper presented in Chicago at RSNA 2008: Personal Learning in the Global Community. On December 3, Tracking Physician Productivity: Is It Necessary and How Should It Be Done? was presented by Fred

Reinventing Medical Imaging

I recently attended a very interesting and intellectually stimulating conference for top leaders in the field of outpatient imaging services. The Imaging 100 conference was held in Carlsbad, Calif, where imaging executives representing various provider segments assembled to discuss innovative solutions to hot marketplace issues. Most attendees were

Masters of Manipulation

Radiologists and vendors race to grasp and improve the tools of advanced visualization as imaging modalities churn out ever more information

Heroes in Proving the Value of Imaging: G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD

Heroes in Proving the Value of Imaging is an occasional series about radiology professionals whose work demonstrates the value of the specialty through research, governmental affairs, humanitarian efforts, and more. In Part 2, ImagingBiz showcases the work of G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD, director of the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA)

CMS Decision on CTC Prompts Restrategizing

The CMS decision to retain nonapproval status for CT colonography (CTC) as a screening method for Medicare patients was a bitter pill for radiology to swallow—all the more bitter because, prior to the February 11 decision, the mood had been optimistic. After years of battling on behalf of CTC, researchers and CTC advocates seemed finally to have

Atlas Scanned

In trying to understand the current shift in economic and political winds, I thought it would be helpful to take a new look at a classic depiction of the US capitalist system, as portrayed in one of American fiction’s great works. In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, protagonist John Galt is the leader of a small group (think top 1% of earners) of early

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.