Health Imaging & IT - January 2008 - (Page 23)

RSNA 2007 IN-Depth @ RSNA360.HealthImaging.com In Review Ü Quality improvement James Borgstede, MD, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, said that “what is best for the patient is best for the physician and changing practice requires a healthcare team effort.” He said that for project success, the entire healthcare team needs to be involved; physicians need to be involved in the project; and all team members must have specific topics. Paul Nagy, PhD, from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, suggested that accelerated pace and performance pressure have left quality control marginalized. PACS products make everyone more productive, but they also need to increase communication between radiologist and technologist as opposed to decreasing it. Ramin Khorasani, MD, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, noted that: “For change management [to promote quality], you must address people more than anything else.” Paul Chang, MD, from the University of Chicago Medical Center, said radiology needs to shift from cranking out work to adding value and contributing quality. Currently, he said, quality is peripheral to the daily tasks of radiologists, but “it’s inevitable that we have to deal with quality and we should want to.” Key points KEyNotES Images, It and inevitable change The pace of change is accelerating, RSNA President Gilbert Jost, MD, told RSNA attendees in the President’s Address, “The Evolution of the Digital Age and Its Impact on Radiology’s Future.” Radiology must take advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital world. The first step is a new breed of imaging scientists. “We should capitalize on technology to build effective, interactive, electronic teaching tools,” he said. James P. Borgstede, MD, an MR imaging fellow and assistant professor of radiology at the University of California, San Diego, addressed “With Worldwide Image Distribution, Will Radiology Become a Commodity?” in the opening session. To avoid commoditization, the radiology community needs: Awareness and recognition that a problem exists; Practice alliances; Internalization of after-hours service (the use of teleradiology has more than tripled since 2003); To develop specialty identification with patients; To embrace quality metrics, and pay for performance and safety standards. Electronic-based technologies are critical enablers to increase the growing desire for realtime delivery, optimized, personalized service, echoed Paul Chang, MD, professor and vice chairman of radiology informatics and medical from the director of pathology informatics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, who spoke on “Leveraging Informatics to Enhance Radiology Relevance and Value.” Next-generation IT systems need to improve throughput and report turn-around times, as well as provide more intelligent, prioritized worklists. embrace molecular imaging Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) encouraged his fellow radiologists to embrace and seek to understand the biological complexities of molecular medicine in his Eugene P. Pendergrass New Horizons lecture, “Major Trends in the Imaging Series.” The future of understanding biological data needs to be quantitative, non-destructive, multi-dimensional, have a high temporal resolution, be spatially resolved, high data density and have common standards. “Imaging is no longer going to be defined by the tools we have, but instead, by its larger impact on the medical industry,” he said. [ RSNA President Gilbert Jost, MD] ized reporting and evidence-based medicine. Bassett foresees an expanding role for breast imagers in disease management, advances in digital mammography, ultrasound, CAD, breast MRI and breast tomosynthesis and renewed interest in breast imaging among residents. Solving the healthcare cost crisis Kudos for breast imaging After decades of controversy and challenges, breast imaging is now enjoying new accomplishments, said Lawrence Bassett, MD, breast imaging section head at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles during the Annual Oration in Diagnostic Radiology “Breast Imaging: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” Among them are practice guidelines, the American College of Radiology (ACR) Commission on Breast Imaging, standardHealthcare costs in the United States are quickly approaching unsustainable levels and require immediate action, said Allen Lichter, MD, executive vice president and CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), who delivered the annual oration in radiation oncology. What are the solutions? Investment in primary care, EMRs and clinical trials that show where imaging and therapy are effective. And physicians need to guide healthcare reform and be advocates for “a rational payment system.” HealthImaging.com January 2008 | Health Imaging & IT 23 http://RSNA360.HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

Health Imaging & IT Table of Contents On the Web The Enterprise: Is More Better? News Update A Look Inside Next-Generation Multidetector CT Convention Spotlight: RSNA in Review RIS/PACS in the Imaging Center Sweden: A Study in Mammography Excellence The Votes are in: Yea for Speech in U.S. Capital & Beyond Subspecialty Reading Services: Quality Reads, Peace of Mind, 24/7 Enterprise Lung CAD Eases Workflow Advertisers Index Company Index Coming Soon Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

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