Keep up with the latest radiology and medical imaging news and insights from the industry’s trusted legal partner, Ged Lawyers. Here are the top stories from the field that you need to know.
The Head & Neck Oncology program at Tampa General Hospital (TGH) celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. One of only three training centers in the area, surgeons who have trained in the program complete a noteworthy 5,000 surgical procedures on 400 to 500 new patients each year.
Many phyisicans throughout the state send patients with head and neck cancers to the facility, which relies on exams and ultrasonography to accurately diagnose cancers and other head and neck concerns.
Additionally, TGH was one of the first Florida hospitals to use the Da Vinci SP single-port robotic surgical system, a transoral system with a single port. The program also has a high rate of flap surgery success rate, at 97 to 98 percent.
"Tampa General’s microvascular program incorporates cutting-edge techniques such as 3D modeling, allowing specialists to create custom treatment plans, models, and implants, "notes South Florida Hospital News.
The editors of Health Imaging, a digital magazine that considers developments in imaging and informatics, recently identified the most significant trends in breast imaging over the last three years.
The most significant trend was the widespread adoption of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) systems offering 3D imaging technology. This more comprehensive imaging system is swiftly replacing full-field digital mammography (FFDM), a technology that has been widely used for nearly 20 years.
Today, DBT systems account for 46 percent of mammography in the United States, with an average of more than 1,000 new 3D imaging systems installed yearly. Experts predict these systems will almost entirely replace FFDM technology within the next ten years.
The benefit of 3D mammography is that clinicians can view the breast in slices, similar to the imaging in CT scans.
"This allows areas that appear to have a mass to be viewed layer by layer to see if the suspicious area is just overlying layers of dense breast tissue. Users say this helps a lot in determining if a patient should be called back for additional imaging, biopsy, or if the area of concern is overlapping tissue," explains Dave Fornell.
As of 2023, about a third of radiologists used artificial intelligence for at least one element of their practice.
Dr. Sonia Gupta, a board member of the American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, recently talked with Diagnostic Imaging about the role artificial intelligence (AI) can play in completing non-interpretive tasks. For instance, AI can use natural language processing to pull up elements of a patient's electronic medical record. She stated:
(With) incidental finding follow-up, AI reads the report and detects the findings that need follow-up … and can also insert your follow-up recommendations into the report. Again, this is a non-interpretative and natural language processing-based type of AI. I think that is a really great opportunity we can all utilize."
In the upcoming years, new reimbursement options, AI vendor consolidations, and developments in AI cancer screening will likely encourage even more radiologists to adopt these technologies.
Nationwide, health providers are battling a nursing shortage. One of the ways they are grappling with this issue is by turning to virtual nursing. In a recent issue of Becker's Hospital Review, nine chief nursing officers weighed in on the benefits and drawbacks of virtual nursing.
Some CNOs appreciated the ease with which seasoned nurses could transfer their knowledge to newer practitioners via virtual platforms. Tele-nurses can also educate patients and complete documentation, while in-person nurses can then have more time to focus on tasks that can only be completed in person.
A drawback to virtual nursing is that patients and colleagues may not have the same level of personal connection nurses can offer face-to-face.
Still, virtual nursing seems like a viable remedy for a workforce that likely won't return to pre-pandemic levels.
"As this concept is more widely adopted, it has the potential to result in more satisfied patients, staff who feel more supported, and more opportunity to retain nurses who feel they can no longer work at the bedside," said Scott Jessie, Chief Nursing Officer of SUNY Upstate University Hospital.
Florida's Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance ensures that every driver in the state has at least $10,000 in injury coverage. However, many Floridians have problems with the system, including the fact that insurance companies often fail to pay clinicians' claims in part or in full.
In one instance, a Florida imaging center had over $3.5 million in unpaid or underpaid PIP claims for services rendered. The doctor-owned facility was unsure how they could win their lost money - until they contracted with Ged Lawyers.
Our team started out by writing letters to insurance companies requesting payment within 30 days. In cases where we didn't hear back in that timeframe, we litigated to secure these missing funds. All the while, the imaging center could track the status of each claim through our HIPAA-compliant portal.
Ultimately, we won more than $3.7 million in unpaid PIP claims back for that center, and we can do the same for your practice.
Contact Ged Lawyers at (561) 995-1966 or through our website to increase your practice's revenue today!