Five major CT scanner manufacturers announced yesterday that they will implement radiation protection software on their systems, according to this Associated Press article. GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips, Toshiba, and Hitachi will introduce and deploy software that sounds and alarm when the dose delivered exceeds the scanner’s maximum recommended level.

It’s not the complete solution, but the move absolutely is a positive step and smart move for the industry.

Thirteen large radiology groups — encompassing more than 750 radiologists — on Wednesday announced the formation of a consortium called Strategic Radiology.

According to the Strategic Radiology Web site, the practices included in the clinical and non-clinical collaboration performed 11.6 million exams and procedures and served 124 hospitals.

“Our vision is for Strategic Radiology to deliver efficient world-class patient care through clinical and non-clinical collaboration,” Strategic Radiology’s chairman Arl Van Moore, MD, said via the organization’s Web site. Moore is the immediate past president of the ACR and chair of Charlotte Radiology in North Carolina.

Exactly how the groups will work together clinically and economically remains to be seen, but the idea of a physician-owned, privately held so-called super group is one way to compete in the evolving world of radiology services. Will the cooperation include shared overnight and specialty reads? How about collaboration for pursuing contracts? Cooperative purchasing? Shared IT support in some capacity? There good questions about how this will evolve—and how it fits into the future of delivering radiology care.

Strategic Radiology’s press release touts its intention to remain both privately held and physician owned. Such an organization has the potential to put physician-owned entities on more competitive economic footing with public telerad groups and corporate imaging entities. As groups increase in size and smaller practices feel the pressure to grow or be pushed out of the way, this could prove a viable strategy. But small groups banding together might not be an appropriate analogy. The mean size of each group involved in Strategic radiology is 59 radiologists.

It’s too early to tell what this consortium will bring, but it’s worth paying attention to new models of radiology practice.

Strategic Radiology Member Groups
Advanced Diagnostic Imaging—Nashville, Tenn.
Advanced Radiology Services—Grand Rapids, Mich.
Austin Radiological Association—Austin, Texas
Charlotte Radiology—Charlotte, N.C.
Diversified Radiology—Denver, Col.
Inland Imaging—Spokane, Wash.
Jefferson Radiology—Hartford, Conn.
Mountain Medical Physician Specialists—Salt Lake City, Utah
Northwest Radiology—Indianapolis, Ind.
Radiology Ltd.—Tuscon, Ariz.

This article from the Washington Post ultimately blames the Beatles for the explosion in medical images. Actually, when you strip away the hyperbole, the story tells how profits generated by the Fab Four’s recordings at EMI funded research that led to CT scanners. What’s more  interesting are the arguments that CT and much of healthcare seems contradict the economics of technology, and that imaging technology is used for a job it’s really not designed to do. I’m not sure how true that argument is, but I’m always a little dubious when economists tell me that everything can be reduced to economics. It’s worth checking out.

Is the expansion of IR services causing your group to rethink its partner compensation plan? Check out this article in the February issue of Radiology Today:

“The more diverse a medical group, the more difficult it is to develop and maintain a sense of fairness in its income-distribution scheme. Radiology groups have historically been quite homogenous with everybody in the group doing pretty much the same thing. So it made perfect sense to pay each partner an equal share of the what’s left over after paying the bills.

But Society of Interventional Radiology President Brian F. Stainken, MD, FSIR, notes that this “historic, homogenous model in which we all basically did the same thing is … well, history.” Leading radiology practices today have learned to embrace diversity and subspecialization. That builds a strong practice, but it can challenge the sense of fairness in the way various group members are paid.

Differences in imaging modalities haven’t forced many groups to revisit their (typically) equal profit-distribution plans. After all, whether the radiologist is reading mammograms, MRIs, CT scans, or plain films, the business operation, revenue cycle, and facility requirements remain about the same. And with PACS, the group can somewhat address differences in demand and production between members by requiring cross-coverage: On a slow day the MRI physician can fill gaps in the schedule by reading plain films.

Adding interventional radiology (IR) to the mix complicates the picture considerably.” Read more.