Dear PACS Insider,
As the healthcare market continues to move toward accountable care organization models, radiologists can't afford to remain in the background of the care process. Developing a more prominent role in the future of healthcare will require increased collaboration with referring physicians and more availability to interact directly with patients.
Placing radiology reading rooms in clinical areas can help achieve those goals, according to the experience of a group at NYU Langone Medical Center. Setting up an integrated reading room at the institution's urologic oncology clinic led to a number of important benefits. Read about them in this edition's Insider Exclusive, which you can access before our other members.
In other feature articles, learn how a New Jersey health system used workflow analysis to support its move to in-house 24/7 subspecialized image reading.
In addition, PACS consultant Michael J. Cannavo has contributed another installment of his Straight Talk From the PACSman series. In his latest missive, Mr. Cannavo discusses the changing times in the PACS market and the importance of optimizing your PACS.
Researchers from Montefiore Medical Center recently concluded that institutions could save money by buying individual PACS components instead of a turnkey PACS. Find out how they are building a system that best meets their needs by clicking here.
Dr. David C. Levin of Thomas Jefferson University has been outspoken in recent years about the risks of radiologists using teleradiology firms. In a presentation at RSNA 2013, Dr. Levin shared his thoughts on how local radiology groups can fend off teleradiology firms seeking to displace them from long-standing relationships with hospitals. Click here for our coverage by AuntMinnie.com staff writer Kate Madden Yee.
Korean researchers also recently determined that on-call radiology residents can utilize a smartphone to get after-hours advice from more experienced or specialized radiologists about CT cases for diagnosing appendicitis.
Do you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see covered in the PACS Digital Community? As always, please feel free to drop me a line.
