That’s one of the conclusions of Ramin Khorasani, a radiologist from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in a recent Journal of the American College of Radiology article.

Khorasani argues that articulating well thought-out imaging protocols can reduce unnecessary follow-up medical imaging by facilitating improvement in initial diagnoses. One key to good protocols, he says, is good IT – and that includes an RIS.

Khorasani makes a few specific recommendations for improving protocols:

• Make EHR information easily available and digestible to radiologists. This means highlighting the information that radiologists need, such as actual and potential allergies to medications like contrasting agents. Along similar lines, he advocates for…
• Digital ordering of medications. Internal checks enable a program to “red flag” a potential dosage error or improper medication.
• Provide decision support tools that facilitate the collection of clinically-based evidence for recommended procedures and identify ways to prevent the need for further imaging.
• Only present data relevant to radiologists so that they don’t have to scroll down or go to new screens to get the information they are likely to need.

An RIS – integrated with a PACS and an EHR – helps make the above a reality for medical imaging professionals. By managing the huge amount of information necessary for high-quality patient care and streamlining processing like billing, an RIS helps radiologists and other physicians focus on patients instead of paperwork.

Information from a HealthImaging.com article was used in this post.

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With a frank admission that the “ranking” process is inherently subjective, we’ve drawn up a list of five medical schools that offer outstanding radiology training. Our selection was based on various rankings from the popular press (like U.S. News) and professional organizations and on numbers such as acceptance rates and publications. We also tried to highlight schools from around the U.S.

The good news: it wasn’t easy to limit ourselves to five schools. In other words, there’s a lot of good radiology education out there. With over 100 radiology residency programs to choose from, an aspiring M.D. with hopes for a radiology career should be able to get a top-notch medical imaging education without having to travel too far from home.

With that in mind, here are 5 top radiology programs in no particular order:

• University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. Located in downtown Seattle, this program accepts only 35 percent of its applicants, most of whom go on to sub-specialize mammography, pediatric radiology, interventional radiology, cardiopulmonary imaging or nuclear medicine.
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. Right on the banks of the Mississippi River, the University of Minnesota has long been recognized as having a top-tier medical school. In its own words, “Patient care is the cornerstone of the program. Resident education and medical research in radiology can only succeed in an environment where the best patient care comes first.”
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. With a new $1 billion clinical building scheduled to open in the spring of this year – which includes new diagnostic and interventional radiology facilities – Johns Hopkins secures its place as a leading source of medical imaging research.
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass. “The Department of Radiology is dedicated to training top-notch clinical radiologists who will practice in a variety of academic and private settings,” says the Hospital’s website. It accepts only nine or ten residents each year.
• Washington University Mallinckrodt Institute, St. Louis, Missouri. Residents are part of a #2-ranked medical school and practice at #7-ranked Barnes Jewish Hospital, and the Mallinckrodt Institute has one of the finest radiology facilities in the country.

Leave a comment and let us know if there is a radiology program that you like!

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• Pre-Loaded and Customizable Tables. No one in a radiology department has time to create all the tables the department needs, which is why an RIS should come with the most common tables pre-loaded. But it should also allow the department to easily manipulate basic templates to meet its unique needs. 
  

• Comprehensive Workflow Coverage. Scheduling, ordering, dictation, charge preparation, and so on: A top-of-the-line RIS will take all of these workflow functions into consideration – and maybe even include some that are easy to overlook.

• Full integration with a PACS. If a radiology department’s PACS and an RIS can’t talk to each other, someone – or a lot of people – will have to spend a lot of hours transferring data from one to the other.

• Integration with an EMR. The push for more and better integration of healthcare services will only get stronger in the coming months and years.

• Quick Installation. 12 weeks – that’s the longest it should take to install an RIS system and train people to use it. Smaller practices can expect an even faster installation.

• Substantial Return on Investment. Buying or upgrading a RIS demands significant capital. But the right RIS improves efficiency, reduces overhead costs, and allows a radiology department to expand its customer base.

Whether you’re replacing your current RIS, switching to an enterprise-wide solution or investigating RIS for the first time, it makes financial sense to partner with a vendor who can provide a dependable, profitable solution for your facility.

Schedule a demo to learn more about working McKesson’s RIS or contact us directly for more information. You can also look for us at Booth #211 Lakeside Center at the upcoming RSNA 2011.

If you were to take the top 100 associations and professional medical organizations and ask them their number one goal, the answer would resoundingly be the same:  Helping Patients and Improving Care.  That mission and goal is the driving force behind all of the top medical associations around the globe and the American Board of Radiology is exactly the same way.

Here is more about that radiology association that is doing a great deal of amazing work to advance the field and directly improve patient care:

The American Board of Radiology

Created in 1934, the American Board of Radiology is one of the 24 medical specialty boards that comprise the much larger American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).  All the members of the ABMS strive to establish standards for physicians to achieve as well as maintaining their board certification.

Here, in the American Board of Radiology’s own words, is their official mission:

“…to serve patients, the public, and the medical profession by certifying that its diplomats have acquired, demonstrated, and maintained a requisite standard of knowledge, skill, and understanding essential to the practice of diagnostic radiology, radiation oncology, and radiologic physics.”

They aim to help patients by providing information about the certification process as well as which doctors are certified, and support physicians through the creation of programs that keep doctors current in their fields, thereby improving their practice and performance.  In essence, their goal is to transform healthcare by increasing awareness about board certification and improving patient care.

Check out the ABR to stay up to date and informed on all issues pertaining to radiology, board certification and news that affects the entire field.  If you’re looking for more, check out this list of other healthcare IT and radiology associations.

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The British Journal of Radiology: The British Journal of Radiology is the official peer-reviewed monthly research journal of the British Institute of Radiology.  The journal coversalmost every clinical and technical aspect of diagnostic imaging, radiotherapy and oncology, medical physics and radiobiology.  Since it covers such a wide range of disciplines means readers can stay current with developments in their own fields as well as those that are related.

Journal of Radiology Case Reports: As medical imaging and radiology are moving towards increasingly interactive and digital futures, the Journal of Radiology Case Reports offers what they call a new generation of journals and case reports.

Much more interactive in style, this Journal offers open access, free submission and publication, blinded-peer review, interactive case reports and review articles as well as international authors and editors.  The publications come in multiple formats from HTML to PDF and even video.  An amazing case report resource to check out!

For even more publications or journals, be sure to drop by our full list of PACS, RIS and healthcare resources.

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Before choosing a medical imaging system, the 340-bed hospital used a film-based system, which required hours of time to read before actual reporting. Camden-Clark recognized that crucial time  – and money  – were being wasted.

Following an evaluation of practices, Camden-Clark chose McKesson’s Horizon Medical Imaging™ as its imaging solution. Once implemented, the hospital immediately suspended all use of film – except in rare cases – and exclusively adopted the new system.

Since using the PACS, the hospital saw immediate improvements in patient care, as well as the long-term operational and financial benefits of using a medical imaging system. For example, since implementing the PACS eight years ago, Camden-Clark has seen a significant rise in exams from 134,123 in 2002 to more than 160,000 last year.

PACS has been so successful at Camden-Clark that radiologists pushed to have the technology extended to Sisterville General Hospital, a 12-bed critical access hospital, another area facility. Additionally, because of the success of the PACS implementation, Camden-Clark also implemented a Cardiovascular Information Solution (CVIS) for its cardiology department.

Discover more about how Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital benefits from using PACS as its medical imaging system by downloading the full case study.

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While its facilities shared the same patients, they didn’t share patient information and images.

Bloomington Hospital needed a medical imaging solution that would help it enhance the overall patient experience – from ordering to report distribution.

Specifically, the Indiana hospital was in search of a medical imaging solution to eliminate:

• Slow report turnaround times and delayed patient treatments
• The need for radiologists to travel long distances to other facilities to interpret exams
• Long wait times for patients as office staff tracked their information down from other facilities

Bloomington Hospital turned to McKesson to implement an integrated PACS/RIS – Horizon Medical Imaging™ and McKesson Radiology Manager™.

Since implementation, the hospital has:

• Decreased report turnaround times from a day to just minutes
• Enabled radiologists to see prior images and reports, no matter where they are
• Improved patient outcomes with fewer errors and fast treatment times

Download the full medical imaging case study to learn more.

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Applied Radiology: This print and online radiology resource covers all aspects of diagnostic radiology, interventional techniques and therapeutic specialties. Applied Radiology features physician-authored clinical articles and radiological cases, as well as interactive quizzes, reader polls, videos and news stories.

Radiology Today: This bi-weekly publication is designed for radiology professionals, including radiologists, managers, directors, technologists, PACS/RIS administrators, physicians and cardiologists. Radiology Today includes insight on both day-to-day and more strategic issues affecting radiology departments. It also features the latest information on PACS and RIS advancements.

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Check out the two organizations below, or access our complete list of healthcare IT associations.

American Academy of Medical Administrators: AAMA represents multi-disciplinary healthcare management at all levels, within all health organizations. It promotes professional development and credentials through continuing education and research in healthcare management. AAMA provides colleges that focus on specific specialties of healthcare administration, including health plan management, healthcare information and oncology.

Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance: MITA represents medical imaging equipment manufacturers, innovators and product developers. The medical imaging association provides leadership on legislative and regulatory issues at the state, federal and international level. MITA also serves as a standards development organization for medical imaging equipment.

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That long-standing history is what led it to adopt the next generation of medical imaging technology.

The medical center needed to leverage medical imaging technology that could enable fast, easy access to digital images across the enterprise. Plus, it needed a solution that would help it meet the meaningful use requirements associated with tapping into federal stimulus incentives.

Baton Rouge General first implemented McKesson Horizon Medical Imaging™ Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Horizon Cardiology Cardiovascular Information System (CVIS).

Since implementation, the two systems have:

• Reduced film costs by $500,000 a year
• Made images readily available from any location
• Eliminated the need for a radiologist at each campus 24/7
• Increased the use of subspecialists, who no longer have to travel to multiple locations

But Baton Rouge General didn’t stop there. Shortly after the PACS and CVIS implementation, it added the McKesson Horizon^WP® Physician Portal to provide enhanced service to referring physicians.

The web portal, which enables access to images created from a variety of modalities, has drastically reduced report turnaround time from 12-18 hours to just three.

Discover more about the cutting-edge medical imaging technology at Baton Rouge General Medical Center by downloading the full case study.

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