Earlier this year vRad and San Diego-based XIFIN (pronounced zy-fin) began closely collaborating on an online workflow that will offer referring physicians a one-stop fusion of all diagnostic reports—from radiology, pathology and clinical labs.

Radiology provides critical value in the diagnostic process. However, significant changes in healthcare now require the specialty to think creatively about how to provide additional value beyond interpretation, including transparency into quality and economic performance. 

As an early adopter of speech recognition technology in 2000, Richard H. Wiggins, III, MD, CIIP, FSIIM, witnessed a stunning reduction in turnaround times (TAT) at the University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City.

Of all scenarios in radiology that call for lightning-fast turnaround times coupled with absolute accuracy, few present the pressure of serving as the radiology group on call for in-season sports-injury studies.

McKesson spent a good deal of its time at HIMSS15 showcasing a new, vendor-neutral IT suite aimed at helping healthcare providers orchestrate workflows and increase interoperability—not least by image-enabling their EHR systems.

Every hospital-based radiology department in the U.S. knows it needs to reduce costs while improving care—now, not later on down the road—but only the most focused and forward-looking manage to pull off the feat one day and, the next, secure its sustainability for many years to come.

“The patient refused an autopsy.” “Discharge status: alive but without permission.” “Patient has two teenage children but no other abnormalities.” Classic comedic lines from Monty Python’s Flying Circus? Nope. Real-world examples of muffed medical dictation that could have been caught upon utterance by natural language processing (NLP) technology.

Radiology helped pioneer clinical informatics over the past three decades. But by now, the new ways have become everyday operating procedures across the enterprise. The present reality offers radiology some developing opportunities—and poses some pressing questions.