A lot of conversations about value in radiology revolve around patients. How can specialists and their practices keep patients happy? What will make them the most comfortable? These are important things to ask, of course, but a recent article published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology is a reminder that demonstrating value to referring physicians is also absolutely crucial. 

There is no doubt that vendor neutral archives (VNAs) have gained favor over the last several years in managing medical images. But there is some debate over whether hospitals really need both a VNA and a PACS. If PACS can do double duty as VNA and PACS, why do you need both? As we see it, you don’t, as long as you have a true enterprise PACS and here’s why.

Radiologist Marc Liebeskind, MD, doesn’t need to strain his memory to recall a time when he saw a health insurer’s authorization process come between sound clinical judgment and a patient’s clearly indicated care.

Nearly two decades ago, the PACS race was on in Southern California’s Inland Empire. The main event pitted the regional medical center, 439-bed Riverside County Regional Medical Center, against the larger 719-bed Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC). In 1998, Riverside won the race by about six months, installing the first PACS in the region and, in the process, becoming the first hospital in the U.S. to select Sectra PACS.

Recently imagingBiz sat down with the two of McKesson’s General Managers to discuss their views on important current imaging issues.

One of the latest offerings in vRad’s service portfolio would make for a good chapter in How to Do More with Less in Radiology, should such a book ever get written. The new program is the teleradiology giant’s Virtual Resident Workflow (VRW), and the title of the chapter on it would be something along the lines of: “While You’re Interpreting, You Could Be Teaching Too.”

By attempting to shatter the status quo and shift toward value-based care, the radiology industry is, in a way, sacrificing today’s monetary gains for a better tomorrow. It’s a smart, impressively noble move, but one that hasn’t been easy—and likely won’t get much easier in the immediate future. 

It was early 2015 when the team at Carilion Clinic decided they had outgrown their PACS and needed to replace their decade-old system.