We’re only halfway through the current calendar year, and already radiology practice in the U.S. has been jolted by not one but two major transactions.

Finding a happy place at work may seem like mismatch—or if you are lucky, the norm. In healthcare, we strive to keep patients happy. Happy providers make happy patients. But sometimes we need some help in boosting our own happiness.

The other day I saw this headline and stopped. “The Art and Science of Doing Nothing.”

When it comes to diagnosing cancer, radiologists examine digital images and pathologists scrutinize slides. Only occasionally do the two collaborate prior to meetings of the tumor board or multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Apple used to push the world to “think different.” Today, the profession of radiology is being driven to think differentiation. And the impetus is issuing not from a single corporation, but rather from myriad market forces—from commoditization to consolidation to, perhaps most pressingly, ever-narrowing profit margins.

Through the exceptionally tight partnership of vRad Chief Medical Officer, Ben Strong, MD, and Chief Information Officer, Shannon Werb—explored in Part I of this interview—vRad has achieved a synergistic melding of those concepts that truly are driving clinical innovation, as evidenced by the discussion with Strong and Werb.

If you really want to know how a scanner is performing, talk to the technologist.

Earlier this year, Connecticut cut Medicaid reimbursement rates for OB-GYN and radiology. In June, the Nutmeg State’s general assembly voted to restore the former in large part but the latter barely at all. Some say the radiology cut—$4.45 million, a whopping 42.5%—will block access to care for many patients who need it most.