At the most recent meeting of the Radiology Business Management Association in Charlotte, a new model for independent group practice collaboration was proposed to practices around the country. The model allows independent practices to succeed and is an alternative to the traditional radiology group alignment models of merger, acquisition, or outright takeover by a hospital or a private equity group. These collaborations can take different forms, but they share the same underlying goals: gaining the necessary resources to fulfill the needs of their primary clients—hospitals, payors and patients—inclusive of delivering meaningful information and decision support.

Radiology practices have long sought a solution to the consolidation occurring in their marketplaces, as well as the commoditization happening in their midst. The fundamental problem is delivering ever-higher levels of service and quality with diminished resources.

It is an article of faith for those who are active in the stock market that both bears and bulls can and do succeed and make money, as long as each approach is a decision based on a strategy. Bears are skeptical, cautious, hedging their bets against a rising tide that they see as illusory or unsustainable.

Brooklyn-based Urban Radiology had been a mainstay in the Coney Island community for nearly five years before its outpatient-imaging center was completely destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.  Eighteen months later, it has reopened officially to serve the community with new, state-of-the-art imaging equipment.

This year, 2014, marks the 20-year anniversary for RamSoft, Inc., a perfect vantage point from which to view 20 years of participation in the evolution of the imaging informatics industry for Vijay Ramanathan, president and CEO, and Siva Ramanathan, chief technology officer. RamSoft was founded in 1994 by N. Ramanathan, PhD, also known as Dr. Ram, a distinguished faculty member at the University of Toronto, with roots at the Toronto General Hospital. He is the father of Vijay and Siva. 

The concept of a unified storage management system to index and manage data across an organization, including data in public cloud services, company servers and employee devices is something that is commonplace, even taken for granted by employees in corporate environments, but in hospital systems, the adoption of vendor neutral archiving (VNA) systems is in its infancy, as healthcare works to catch up to the technological standard of corporate America. 

 FUJIFILM MEDICAL SYSTEMS U.S.A., INC. DEMONSTRATES LATEST INNOVATIONS IN ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IMAGE MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING AT THE 25th ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY Stamford, Conn., June 19, 2014 (Booth #301) – FUJIFILM Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc. will demonstrate the next generation of Synapse Cardiovascular, that will allow cardiologists and clinical professionals to enhance patient care through advanced reporting applications  at the 25th Annual Scientific Session of the American Society of Echocardiography in Portland, Oregon. “With Synapse, our users are able to perform their job more efficiently and ultimately allow them to concentrate more on the patient and improve patient outcomes,” said Jim Morgan, vice president of Medical Informatics, FUJIFILM Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc. “At ASE, we will demonstrate an upcoming clinical reporting platform that will feature a new user interface and layout options that has the potential to benefit your entire practice.” Following is a summary of offerings:Synapse Cardiovascular helps cardiologists in a variety of clinical areas efficiently and confidently interpret images and compose structured reports with a streamlined workflow. The system has powerful capabilities designed specifically for, echocardiography, cardiac catheterization and invasive peripheral vascular, nuclear cardiology, vascular ultrasound, ECG management, CT, and Cardiac MRI workflows. Fujifilm's Synapse Cardiovascular is an essential addition to any clinical workplace.  At the show, attendees will also be able to see a works-in-progress demonstration of Synapse Cardiovascular 6.0*, which will showcase intended future functionality for echocardiography. Fujifilm will also share the benefits of its zero footprint mobile application, Synapse Mobility. The application enables access to Fujifilm’s suite of Synapse products from hand-held devices, in addition to browser independence. Access to non-DICOM information from the Synapse VNA has been added to complete the universal viewing capability from EMRs such as Epic Hyperspace.  Synapse Mobility continues to demonstrate its diagnostic capability for both browser and mobile versions. To register for a demonstration at ASE 2014, please visit: http://www.fujimed.com/gateway/ase/2014/registration.html.  *Synapse Cardiovascular 6.0 will be made commercially available in the U.S. upon receipt of FDA clearance For more information about Synapse, please visit: http://cardiovascular.fujimed.com/

Radiology’s current environment has often been described as a perfect storm—but Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle, publisher of ImagingBiz and president/CEO of the Kauffman Group, sees it differently. “Some of the current market conditions are negative and some are positive, but combined, they create a significant opportunity,” he says.