Visualizing a leadership role for imaging

Mary Stevens, editor, CMIO

Why aren’t more radiologists CMIOs? One answer to this question can be found in a story by my colleague Lisa Fratt earlier this month. As she reported, a survey of 72 physicians attending the recent annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) asked what lessons they wish they’d learned in medical school. The results emphasized the need for leadership training and development at all levels.

Few respondents indicated that they wished they learned how to make a better differential diagnosis; in contrast, many said they could have used leadership training and sharpening of communication skills, said John K. Crowe, MD, of Scottsdale Medical Imaging in Scottsdale, Ariz., who conducted the survey.

In general, medical education provides little in the way of leadership development. Although that is changing somewhat, as the national healthcare focus has turned toward the technologies driving modern medicine, more leaders from imaging are still needed.

As Crowe suggested, “if we don’t do a better job of training leaders for medicine, we will be doomed to working for others who have acquired these skills in other ways. … We need to go beyond teaching students how to crank out relative value units (RVUs).”

Successful radiologists of the future will need to develop additional personal skills to roll with the changes that capitation, consolidation, utilization controls and accountable care organizations could bring. All of these will require professionals well-versed in leadership, collaboration and communication. If medical education offers more training in leadership, this might mean the future ranks of CMIOs may include more advanced imaging specialists.

Advanced visualization has a larger role to play in complex diagnoses as well. For example, one of the challenges associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is obtaining a prompt and accurate diagnosis. Now, research under way at the University of Virginia Health System is exploring two potential imaging approaches to improve diagnosis: a handheld ultrasound system that detects brain tissue stiffening; and PET probes in settings where advanced imaging is available. TBI is the leading cause of death in individuals under the age of 35 in the U.S., and is the cause of 50,000 deaths annually. Faster, more accurate diagnosis of TBI and its relative severity may improve care.

Regardless of your medical specialty, if you’re the clinical informatics leader in your facility, I invite you to take our second annual CMIO Health IT Top Trends survey. You might win an iPad 2 for your efforts! Click here to take the survey.

Mary Stevens
Editor of CMIO
mstevens@trimedmedia.com