Becker's Hospital Review

70 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 3 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING SPONSORED BY To thrive in today's turbulent environment, radiologists must embrace technology R adiologists, like other healthcare professionals, are experiencing profound burnout. A major contributor is the constant stream of disruptions that punctuate their days and interrupt the work of interpreting studies for referring physicians and their patients. Becker's Hospital Review recently spoke with Dhruv Chopra, CEO of Collaborative Imaging, about the workflow challenges facing both radiologists and referring physicians. He shared how thoughtfully designed technology solutions can streamline clinician interactions, increase efficiency and improve patient care. Workflow disruptions are a productivity killer for radiologists Radiologists' computer monitors are often framed by myriad Post-It notes with reminders about studies that are missing paperwork or prior authorizations, referring physicians who need to be called or previous patient reports that are required to interpret a current study. On top of the phone calls and faxes to referring physicians, it's common for referring physicians to walk into radiologists' offices unannounced to talk about a case. In this scenario, radiologists must close the study they were reviewing and pull up the relevant patient information. When the referring physician leaves, the radiologist can then resume work on the other study. All of this task-switching takes a toll on radiologists' productivity. "Radiologists are trained to interpret studies, yet they are bombarded by distractions," Mr. Chopra said. "They are so used to interruptions they don't even realize the impact on their output. One reason we see so much burnout among radiologists is that they are doing so many things that are unrelated to interpreting studies." Although different companies have developed technology- based solutions to help address these issues, for the most part these solutions haven't been widely adopted. "We've found that most products require radiologists and referring physicians to change their behavior," Mr. Chopra said. "That's one reason why we created our own suite of solutions at Collaborative Imaging. We think products should adapt to clinicians' behavior, not the other way around," Collaborative Imaging leverages automation to eliminate friction in physician workflows Wherever possible and whatever the inefficiencies are, Collaborative Imaging strives to eliminate them with innovative technological solutions. "We don't send a study to the radiologist until we know it's complete," Mr. Chopra said. "If a study requires a prior authorization, we notify the technologist in real time. We also notify radiologists about incomplete studies in the queue." Once a radiologist has interpreted a study, the Collaborative Imaging system immediately sends the report to the referring physician based on his or her preferences. For instance, some physicians prefer secure text messages rather than phone calls. "Since our system has logging, we know when messages and reports are delivered to physicians and we know that they received information using the medium that they want," Mr. Chopra said. "All of that knowledge is built into the solution." Automated routing of radiology reports also speeds peer review of studies, since work can happen in real time. As soon as a physician signs off on a report, it is sent to another physician to examine. Based on their findings, patient care can begin as quickly as possible. "We are really trying to streamline processes and allow radiologists to do what they're trained to do and what they want to do, which is interpreting studies," Mr. Chopra said. Thanks to AI and data science, one-size-fits-all solutions are no longer the norm for radiologists and referring physicians To enhance efficiency for radiologists, Collaborative Imaging has developed its own speech recognition and voice-to- text solutions that are fully integrated into its solution. "Some radiologists like to use macros when dictating reports, so we've built that in," Mr. Chopra said. "When they say a particular thing, it explodes to larger text. Other radiologists prefer to dictate everything, and we support that as well." For referring physicians, Collaborative Imaging also utilizes AI and data science to tailor the content and format of radiology reports to each physician's unique preferences. "In our product, physicians can rate radiology reports, similar to how you would rate a restaurant on Yelp," Mr. Chopra explained. "We want to understand what referring physicians liked or didn't like about a report. Some like lengthy reports, while others like short reports. Some want a tremendous amount of detail in one particular area. We learn from their feedback and tailor reports to their specific preferences."

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