Radiology

Over the past several years, the rate at which articles describing, almost alternately, the benefits and risks of screening mammography, seems to have significantly increased. Some of the articles have shed more light on this valuable examination, better defining its role in a women’s health regimen. Others have only further muddied the waters surrounding the somewhat controversial issue of screening mammography. As with any screening examination, there are issues that need to be discussed and better understood by the clinicians and patients who choose to use this tool.

Teleradiology plays an important role in improving the standard of care for patients who have the unfortunate circumstance of having their illness present at times when physicians, nurses and hospitals are not always at their best and/or most fully staffed. It has long been known that the standard of care maintained by a hospital at 2 p.m. is not the same standard that is seen at 2 a.m.  And, why is that? Why in this day and age with our level of technology and high levels of training does this persist?

Yesterday I provided an overview of the metamorphosis of diagnostic imaging over the past 20 years and described the four main components of a modern radiology practice. Today, we take a look at how the integrated, synergistic approach to diagnostic imaging is greater than the sum of its parts.

My discussion for this entry is in two segments.  In the first segment I will discuss changes in radiology and the separate components of modern radiology practices that need to be integrated to create a more healthy practice, department and hospital.  In the second segment I will discuss the 6 specific enhancements that can be seen when groups synergize the way they practice.

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”- Joseph Campbell