Mobile health screening model lowers costs, promotes sustainability
A new cancer screening service model developed by Italian researchers can reduce direct non-medical costs and improve environmental sustainability for breast cancer screening and other screening exams.
The investigators, led by doctoral candidate Vera Benedetto from the Health Science Interdisciplinary Center in Pisa, found that their model, which utilizes mobile cancer screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer, reduced costs by over 95,000 euros ($101,155 U.S.) in terms of travel costs and productivity losses. It also reduced as much as 35 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)-equivalent travel emissions for a popula...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - April 22, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Amerigo Allegretto Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
AbbaDox to consolidate RIS for Radiology Imaging Associates
Cloud-native platform provider AbbaDox plans to integrate its radiology information system (RIS) platform in Radiology Imaging Associates' Florida and U.S. Virgin Islands operations.
The RIS will streamline operations by replacing multiple-point solutions and manual processes, the company said. It will also enhance appointment scheduling and patient communications, and employ AI in specialized workflows for breast and lung health services, according to AbbaDox. (Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines)
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - April 10, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: AuntMinnie.com staff writers Tags: Industry News Practice Management Administration Source Type: news
HAP secures New Jersey revenue cycle services contract
Healthcare Administrative Partners (HAP) announced it will take over performing all core revenue cycle services on behalf of New Jersey-based Health Village Imaging, LLC.
Under the terms of the agreement, the company will handle billing, coding, carrier credentialing, business intelligence, and Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) measure assurance services for the full-service imaging center that provides x-ray, MRI, and CT services, HAP said. (Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines)
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - April 10, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: AuntMinnie.com staff writers Tags: Industry News Practice Management Administration Source Type: news
Is your equipment helping or hurting patient communication?
Brian Bradfield.With existing scheduling backlogs, radiology technologists are feeling the pressure to move fast. While patient volumes have swelled, staffing challenges have left a less-than-optimal workforce with a bigger workload. A critical element of care can suffer on account of this pressure: patient communication.
Effective patient communication is already a topic of concern in radiology. While there's a case for providing more training opportunities to support good patient communication, there's also a conversation to have about how the equipment used by a facility can impact patient communication and, ultimately...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - April 5, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Brian Bradfield Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
HPI study shows radiologists at MIPS disadvantage
Impeded by a smaller number of radiology-applicable quality measures, in 2021 radiologists in radiology-only practices scored significantly lower on relevant Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) gauges compared with other specialties.In contrast, those in multispecialty practices scored higher in the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) MIPS, although they rarely reported radiology-relevant MIPS quality measures, instead tracking those relevant to other specialties, according to a research letter from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute (HPI) published April 3 in the American J...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - April 3, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Kate Madden Yee Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
Industry payments to radiologists total out at $392M
Out of 39 specialties, radiology was in the top third when ranked by industry payments to doctors over a nine-year period, according to an article published March 28 in JAMA.Between August 2013 and December 2022, 50% of 68,718 radiologists received industry payments totaling $392 million, lead author Ahmed Sayed, of Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, and U.S. colleagues reported. The total for all U.S. physicians over the period was $12.1 billion.“Despite evidence that financial conflicts of interest may influence physician prescribing and may damage patients’ trust in medical professionals, such relationships remai...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 28, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Will Morton Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
Patient access to imaging reports faster post-Cures Act enactment
A key provision in the 21st Century Cures Act has led to decreased time for patients to access imaging results, according to research published March 27 in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Researchers led by Nelly Tan, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, AZ, also found that after implementing institutional policies to comply with the act’s information-blocking provisions, more patients accessed their reports before the ordering provider did. However, the researchers cautioned that this could impact communication between patients and radiologists when discussing findings.
“Radiologists should consider mechanism...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 28, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Amerigo Allegretto Tags: Practice Management Administration Source Type: news
Powering down idle IR systems can reduce environmental impact
Powering down idle interventional radiology (IR) imaging systems can substantially decrease carbon emissions and electricity costs, according to a group of researchers at University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.The team estimated that annual energy consumption for seven imaging systems at their hospital was comparable to the energy use of 23 four-person households (115,684 kilowatt hours [kWh]) and that energy consumption during nonproductive work accounted for most of the total.“Powering down idle-running interventional imaging systems outside of procedure times has substantial environmental sustainability benefits,”...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 21, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Will Morton Tags: Practice Management Interventional Radiology Clinical News Digital X-Ray Source Type: news
ARPA-H taps Pisano for'Advancing Clinical Trials Readiness' initiative
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has tapped the American College of Radiology's (ACR) Chief Research Officer Etta Pisano, MD, to develop its clinical trial portfolio and lead its Advancing Clinical Trials Readiness initiative.
The ARPA-H is a new federal health research and development organization within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Pisano is the first radiologist appointed to such a role in the ARPA-H, and she will lead the initiative under the agency's Resilient Systems Mission office director, Jennifer Roberts, PhD, according to a statement released by the ACR. In the posi...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 20, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Kate Madden Yee Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
Podcast: Are current radiology AI offerings addressing practice needs?
AuntMinnie.com · Keeping Up With The Radiologists - Episode 3: AI in radiology, build, buy, neither
In this episode of the "Keeping Up With the Radiologists" podcast series brought to you by AuntMinnie.com in collaboration with Penn Radiology, Saurabh (Harry) Jha, MD; Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD; Tessa Cook, MD, PhD; and Chuck Kahn, MD, address the shortcomings of AI in radiology in a spirited discussion.
Prashant Warier, PhD, co-founder and CEO of AI software developer QureAI, fields the brunt of the radiologists' constructive criticisms. The temperature rises a little in this episode. Like other medical imaging AI compa...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 19, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Liz Carey Tags: Imaging Informatics Practice Management Artificial Intelligence Podcasts Source Type: news
IMV: PET scan volumes continue to grow
Davin Korstjens.
In 2023 compared with 2022, the total volume of positron emission tomography (PET) scans increased 10.2% year over year, according to the newly published IMV 2024 PET Market Summary Report.
In 2023, the average number of PET scans per fixed PET site (versus mobile PET) increased 6.7% from 1,401 estimated PET scans per system in 2022 to 1,495 in 2023. As of the 2023 PET survey, 62% of sites have at least one physician who reads PET scans in their department, with an average of 5.4 physicians reading PET scans per site.
Looking ahead, 67% of PET sites anticipate their procedure volumes will increase over ...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 7, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Davin Korstjens Tags: Practice Management Subspecialties Molecular Imaging Nuclear Radiology Source Type: news
ECR: Implementing imaging referral guidelines shows positive impact
Implementing imaging referral guidelines not only supports value-based radiology but makes it easier to communicate with patients about low-value services, according to findings presented February 29 at ECR 2024.
In an open forum, Yi Xiang Tay, of Singapore University Hospital's radiography and diagnostic imaging department, shared his team's research. It was the endnote of a series of sessions focused on optimizing radiology services.
"Low-value imaging procedures result in an ineffective allocation of resources and imposes potential danger," Tay said. "This includes increasing patient costs, the rise of cancer, and inc...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - March 1, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Liz Carey Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
ECR: Communication key to better imaging of elderly patients
Imaging elderly patients presents unique challenges, but radiologists can be proactive in making procedures for this population easier, according to a talk given at ECR 2024.
In his presentation, Uffe LW Jakobsen from UCL University College in Odense, Denmark, outlined strategies for radiologists to better communicate with elderly patients by treating them like any other patient and forming relationships with them.
“Only then can communicate and conduct an examination where we take the appropriate considerations into account without depriving them of their independence and without compromising image quality,” Jakobse...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - February 29, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Amerigo Allegretto Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
Regulatory issues facing radiology groups in 2024
Sandy Coffta.Regulatory issues facing radiology groups in 2024
We pay a lot of attention to government regulation in healthcare, especially the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which influences reimbursement not only from Medicare but also from other payers as many commercial contracts are tied to the MPFS. Although it is the object of most focus, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is not the only agency that regulates healthcare.
MPFS
As of this writing, Medicare reimbursement for 2024 is nominally 3.4% lower across the board than it was in 2023 due to the statutory calculation that goes i...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - February 27, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Sandy Coffta Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
Women in healthcare experience higher burnout rates than male peers
Women in healthcare occupations -- from physicians to nurses, clinical social workers, and mental health providers -- experience more stress and burnout compared to their male peers, researchers have found.
There are ways to mitigate this phenomenon, however, including boosting job satisfaction and maintaining a work-life balance, noted study corresponding author Judith Frame, PhD, of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. Frame and colleagues' results were published February 22 in Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health.
"Research shows that restorative slee...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - February 23, 2024 Category: Radiology Authors: Kate Madden Yee Tags: Practice Management Source Type: news
