Healthcare-economics experts in the Great Lakes State are preparing to tuck into a health-system makeover project that, they hope, will eventually yield tight care coordination—and thus substantial resource savings—on a grand scale. 

In one fell swoop, a medical school in upstate New York has beefed up its radiology faculty by 35 radiologists. In the process, it’s done nothing less than relaunch a long dormant residency program. 

In the Journal of the American College of Radiology, author Richard E. Heller III, MD, MBA, recently concluded an article by saying radiology needs a “new and gradable standard” for written radiology reports. Is this a good idea? A bad one?

While complications from optical colonoscopy occur in less than 1 in 100 cases, the effects can be devastating: bleeding, infection, even death. In the rare case that a serious complication occurs, radiology administrators can ensure rapid diagnosis by prioritizing CT over abdominal radiography, according to a study published in JACR.

Healthcare-economics innovators looking for a model after which to fashion an episodic bundled-payment package for cancer care would do well to consider radiologist-led breast cancer screening.

Become an expert. Build a reputation among your peers. Hire and train the best people. Tips from a businessperson who made it big? Not exactly. It’s advice from an interventional radiologist who daily deals with things like blood clots, varicose veins and other blood circulation abnormalities. 

When the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, or Omnibus Bill, was passed late last year, it included text that requires imaging providers to start using DR.

Hospitals cannot function without physicians, but physicians can function without hospitals. Those are plain facts—the latter is demonstrated daily in war-torn parts of the world—and the observation ought to give pause to those looking to quicken the rise of the hospitalist specialty in U.S. healthcare.