Workflow. Efficiency. The terms are bounced around every day in healthcare. But when it comes to the productivity and profitability of your radiologists and the department as a whole, the right PACS makes all the difference. Getting comfortable with a system can literally cost you hundreds of thousands, if not more.

As diagnostic imaging becomes even more complex, so, too, does the business of running a hospital. Margins are low, competition is high and hospitals are consolidating just to survive. Next-generation imaging solutions are emerging to take the industry to the next level. Industry visionaries have coined the term PACS 3.0 to describe the system of the future with patient-centric data and the fulfillment of anytime, anywhere access. But these visionaries have put the industry on notice that PACS 3.0 simply can’t be achieved without the ability to scale and interoperate with other systems. The burning question in the industry should be: how do we get from here to there?

TORONTO--(Business Wire)--MedCurrent Corporation, a leading provider of clinical decision support solutions, today announced that Los Angeles Department of Health Services (LADHS), the 2nd largest municipal health system in the U.S., has chosen MedCurrent’s OrderRight™ Radiology Decision Support system to ensure appropriate ordering of advanced medical imaging.

Traditionally, advances in healthcare are built upon a formalized architecture of research and the application of the scientific method into healthcare decision making for the benefit of optimal care for a single patient or for populations of patients. The importance of data has continued to manifest itself in other areas of healthcare and influence behaviors with respect to information systems and technology as they relate to healthcare. Historically influential in business, data has become increasingly important to healthcare providers as a predictor and an analysis tool for their own businesses. But as radiologists struggle to maintain their independence and demonstrate their value in the healthcare process, no method proves to be stronger than listening to the experiences of peers, those experiencing success, and those experiencing difficult challenges as well, in order to build the strategies that radiologists will apply to their own businesses as a means to sustaining long-term success.

The 2015 proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) are consistent with those from previous years, continuing to whittle away the revenue stream of radiologists. While the overall impact to radiology is estimated at two percent based on the current proposal, there are some notable changes proposed that may cause the impact to be significantly higher in certain situations.

As radiology struggles to find its footing in an emerging healthcare delivery paradigm that emphasizes collaboration and accountability, radiologist Rasu Shrestha, MD, finds himself at the center of the fray at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Penn., where he was recently named chief innovation officer and president, Technology Development Center.

As valuation professionals, we actively follow publicly traded companies in the healthcare industry.  These companies provide insight into how company management and investors evaluate the opportunities and risks faced by a particular industry.  Challenges in the diagnostic imaging business are not unique; nearly all ancillary healthcare service companies are experiencing similar macroeconomic headwinds. However, ancillary healthcare stocks have continued to demonstrate gains.  

The numbers are in, and they add up to a fire hose of data pushing Medicare to cover low-dose CT screenings for lung cancer in all beneficiaries who are at high risk.