2017 ACR Annual Meeting Open-Microphone Session: Navigating the Landscape of Changing Practice Models: Private Practice, Corporate Radiology, and Enterprise Systems

Special Report of the RSNA COVID-19 Task Force: The Short- and Long-term Financial Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Private Radiology Practices

“…Prior to the pandemic, radiologists saw these entities as having access to capital markets, expertise in consolidation, and stability in a tumultuous radiology market. (15,16) Investors in these private equity firms and/or publicly traded companies own a portion of the practice. These firms re-invest to develop business infrastructure and growth, and in turn receive a portion of profits generated by physician professional activity.…”

Providing Value-Based Service to a Sprawling Orthopaedics Practice

“…Although referred patients generally arrive with outside imaging studies and interpretations, numerous studies showed that second-opinion subspecialty radiology consultations are clinically valuable and often lead to changes in patient management. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] In fact, discrepancy rates were found to be as high as 26% between radiologists with different levels of specialty training including those trained in MSK imaging. [20][21][22] Although we believe this phenomenon to be true throughout the MSK imaging arena, we have shown the value of subspecialty MSK imaging expertise in the orthopaedic oncology arena.…”

“…Particularly in oncology patients, the complexity of cases often requires conversations with multiple specialists because important clinical details may not be available in indications or EMRs. 3,4 For example, at our institution all patients have second-opinion interpretations performed by fellowship-trained MSK radiologists, after review with MSK radiology fellows and the orthopaedic oncology clinical team at a weekly multidisciplinary conference. The MSK attending radiologists, MSK radiology fellows, and the orthopaedic oncology team review all relevant imaging studies and discuss diagnostic considerations and treatment options.…”

“…Although this movement is being fostered by the largest radiology organizations including the Radiologic Society of North America, the American College of Radiology, and the European College of Radiology, subspecialization presents unique avenues through which radiologists can add value at a service-line level. [1][2][3] Musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology offers numerous opportunities for imagers to provide improved valuable services to both our referring colleagues within the MSK service line and our patients. Simply generating quality images with a standard series of binary outputs in the report is no longer acceptable as a value-based service.…”

“…MSK radiologists must work continually to develop and nurture their relationships with all members of the orthopaedics team or teams. 3 This effort requires availability. If a sports medicine clinician reaches out for a real-time consultation and the radiologist is not available, the relationship is fractured.…”