In the not-so-distant future, patients bearing imaging-capable smartphones will put doctors’ offices out of business. Oh, the docs themselves will still have jobs. But many will be working from home.

When radiologists collaborate with referring physicians to proactively manage imaging utilization, the participation of the radiologist has more weight tipping the scale toward success than does the specialty of the referrer. And the rad’s input has the greatest impact on primary care physicians who are heavy orderers of imaging exams.

In 2013 Boston Medical Center, a 496-bed teaching hospital affiliated with Boston University, bit the bullet and rolled out 24/7 in-house attending radiology with an eye on improving patient care. The bitten bullet ended up carrying an annual price tag of $850,000. Have the returns been worth the investment?

Recent survey data revealed that most radiology residents cannot estimate imaging costs within 50 percent of accepted Medicare fees. Armed with this eyebrow-raising insight, researchers from Harvard and Brown Universities have studied the use of iPad apps for teaching tech-savvy millennials the basics of healthcare economics. Their conclusion: The approach works. 

In 2014 the Healthcare Financial Management Association offered tips and recommendations to help healthcare providers become more transparent to healthcare consumers with price and quality data, including info related to imaging services. 

Health systems have been asked to keep track of thousands of different healthcare metrics over the years. It can be difficult, time-consuming work, and it’s certainly not cheap. But according to a research article in the Journal of the American College of Radiology by Michael J. Pentecost, MD, of Magellan Health, some work has been done to relieve this pressure. 

Philips announced today that its suite of CT solutions has received 501(k) clearance from the FDA for low-dose lung cancer screening.

FUJIFILM VisualSonics Inc., a subsidiary of FUJIFILM SonoSite, has announced that its Vevo MD ultra-high frequency clinical ultrasound system has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA.