By Jim Knaub
1. How will the relationship between radiology and patients evolve? The powerful combination of consumer empowerment and the shifting of a greater share of healthcare costs directly to the patient is changing healthcare. The theme of RSNA 2012—“Patients First”—acknowledges this still-evolving change.
The abstract for the address of RSNA President George S. Bisset III, MD, describes the situation pretty well: “The classical model of medical care—which portrays the authoritative physician and the obedient patient, complying with medical recommendations regardless of level of understanding—is rapidly crumbling. Radiologists should be a part of the movement to build something in its place. But, is there anything we can do to actually make a contribution to such an effort, or will we simply continue to talk about it?”
To quote no less an authority than Buffalo Springfield, “There’s something happening here/what it is ain’t exactly clear.” For what it’s worth, I’m very interested to hear Bisset’s talk and gauge how radiology groups, hospitals, and imaging centers might respond to the change in an effort to improve service and care and, perhaps, strengthen radiology.
There seems to be some sense that building different, stronger relationships with patients may improve care (a worthy objective in own) and somehow combat the increased commoditization of images and reports in radiology. The specialty’s challenge may be to figure out and communicate to patients and payers just what that relationship is and how to foster it.
2. Dose reporting and dose management: Public awareness and several high-profile radiation exposure cases have thrust radiation dose management and reporting into the spotlight in this country. Of course radiologists, physicists, imaging facilities, and equipment manufacturers were quietly working at this before it caught the attention of the public and legislators. Still, there was great buzz on the topic at the AHRA annual meeting over the summer, and I think it will be interesting to see how it manifests at RSNA and how imaging organizations may adjust their strategy and workflow because of radiation dose considerations.
3. Cardiac CT angiography and/or cardiac MR: There is extensive literature investigating the effectiveness of using imaging to noninvasively detect coronary artery disease. This year seems to be no exception, with numerous presentations on the topic. The most interesting part to me is how new information on using these tools might bring them into broader use in mainstream cardiac care.
4. The mood after the election. President Obama won reelection—convincingly in the electoral college, but by a modest 2.7% (approximately 3.3 million votes). It seems foolish to expect things are going to suddenly change. While the election can be seen as a mild rebuke to the Republican agenda, the make-up of the the Senate and House of Representatives is esentially the same as it was before the election and the White House has the same occupant. Expect talk about reaching across the aisle to be more common than reaching across it.
So, what will the mood of the imaging industry be when it meets in McCormick Place? I’ll be curious to see how people and companies react now that the path is largely clear for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be implemented. With the Supreme Court upholding the ACA this past June and the recent election results stopping any quick way of overturning it, implementation efforts will get rolling. The imaging community may start implementing its plans to act in the coming world of the ACA, rather than sitting on the sidelines with the wait-and-see attitude that seems to have held sway at the past two RSNA meetings.
— Jim Knaub is editor of Radiology Today.