Radiology-practice consolidation has become more than just a trend: It’s an imperative for future survival, according to Michael Brant-Zawadzki, MD, Ron and Sandi Simon endowed executive medical director chair at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute (Newport Beach, California). “Scale is becoming much more important,” he notes. “Smaller groups are looking for help and are being overtaken by corporate entities like national teleradiology groups—or by larger, independent group practices. Under that model, they can distribute subspecialty services more efficiently and can realize economies of scale.”

Big data, as a term, means different things to different industries and professionals, but loosely defined, it refers to the explosion of information flowing into and out of businesses—including medical practices—over the past few years. Of the world’s data, 90% were created in the past two years alone; IBM estimates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day.

Recruitment and retention of the right physicians is one of the most critical practice-building activities in which radiology groups engage, but misconceptions and missteps abound. While the market for new radiologists is less tight than in recent years, practices must exercise caution to ensure they are hiring the right staff members—and must avoid attrition by developing strategies and procedures for effective physician retention.

Consistent with the observed trends affecting our national health-care market, the diagnostic-imaging industry has been acutely affected by the forces of consolidation. The number of transactions involving diagnostic-imaging centers has grown consistently over the past five years. Most recently, transactions involving the formation of joint-venture arrangements between health systems and large companies operating multiple freestanding imaging centers have become popular.

The federal meaningful-use program has, at last estimate, garnered the participation of 4,500 radiology professionals, and incentive payments of nearly $1.5 billion are still on the table for eligible diagnostic-imaging professionals. Groups that begin the attestation process by October 3, 2013, of this year can receive up to $39,000 per eligible provider, and as adoption grows among their referring-physician bases, more and more radiology practices are expected to participate as well.

Just when you thought you had a grip on every potential threat to your imaging business, a new one emerges. A June Wall Street Journal article highlights the latest issue being faced by hospitals, in particular: the infection of medical devices, including imaging equipment, by malware. These viruses can expose patient information to outside parties, violating HIPAA regulations; worse, they can compromise patient safety by making equipment malfunction.

Image archiving, communication, and management are no longer radiology-specific concerns, although radiology departments can (and should) play pivotal roles in guiding their organizations’ image management strategies. That was the message delivered by Paul Nagy, PhD, Gary Wendt, MD, MBA, and Paul Chang, MD, in a session at the 2013 meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), held June 6-9 in Grapevine, Texas. All three presenters wear dual hats as radiologists and informaticists, and their experiences transitioning to enterprise archives formed the basis of their talks.

It’s Murphy’s Law as applied to health IT—just as PACS platforms are reaching maturity, image storage needs have exceeded their capabilities, says Alexander Towbin, MD, Neil Johnson Chair of Radiology Informatics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. “There’s more and more interest in storing other images outside of radiology,” Towbin says. “Add to that the fact that MU [meaningful use] is encouraging sharing of patient data between two hospitals, including images, and the traditional PACS archive quickly becomes outdated.”