CMS Imaging Blog

Some of you who read my writings may say that I find myself in hospitals and urgent care centers too frequently getting x-rays and other imaging scans. And those individuals would be correct! When you have family members that are accident-prone and add an older member of the family, gone are the days of our youth where seeing the inside of a hospital was a once every few year occurrence.

Most recently, we upgraded our semi-regular family outing to the urgent care center for an excursion to the emergency room of our favorite hospital. The family member in question had x-rays taken at the urgent care center but needed a CT scan to diagnose the issue further. So after an hour at the urgent care center, we made our way over to the emergency room.

When I first started writing this blog post, I was going to title it, "Is it Live, or is it Memorex?"™ But then I realized that if I did, I would be at risk of showing my age. For those of you unfamiliar with this iconic Memorex© tagline, it referred to a comparison between the sound quality of a live band or an audio cassette. For this article, the phrase would refer to the difference between synchronous and asynchronous telemedicine.

What do all of these brands have in common? Apple, Amazon, Google, and now Walmart.

If you have been reading the blogs here, you will know that Apple, Amazon, and Google have all stepped into the healthcare industry, and now Walmart has opened it's first Urgent Care center.

Named "Walmart Health," this new urgent care facility and is located in Dallas,Georgia, roughly 45 minutes from Atlanta. This new facility is not the limited services "Care Clinics" that Walmart operated in other areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

Well, Big Tech is at it again. I have previously written about Amazon's foray (here and here) into the healthcare industry, but now it is Google's turn. Google has recently partnered with Ascension, the nations send largest healthcare provider, on a project that Google calls "Project Nightingale."(This name comes from Florence Nightingale, not the picture of the beautiful songbird above.)

The partnership offers Ascension access to Google's vaunted cloud infrastructure and the full selection of Google Suite products. What Google gains has the potential for a massive invasion of privacy regarding 50 million patient's personal health information (PHI) across 21 states.

In October 1985, the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutic division of Imperial Chemical Industries (now AstraZeneca) founded Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since then, many countries around the world mark this month's focus on the awareness, early detection, and treatment of breast cancer.

Many notable programs to support various breast cancer charities have been created and have become part of our everyday life. From the Susan G. Komen Foundation® to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and even your local eatery, all have created promotions to raise money to fight breast cancer. We have all seen the pink ribbons, the walkathons, and the bumper stickers. But how much do we pay attention to the fight when it is not personal?

Earlier this year, I wrote about Amazon stepping into the healthcare industry. As of this week, Amazon has officially taken the next step into the healthcare industry, creating Amazon Care for their Seattle based employees.

This new healthcare plan will offer Amazon employees four unique benefits.

• Video Care is a visit to a third-party physician from Oasis Medical through the use of the Amazon Care app.
• Mobile Care, an in-person visit from a nurse who can conduct any physical testing you may need.
• Care Chat is an in-app chat session with a nurse.
• Care Couriers, who will deliver prescribed medications to your home or office.

I recently read an article in Kaiser Health News concerning Walmart steering its employees with injuries to imaging centers based on accuracy and not price.During the past few years, specialized hospitals throughout the country misdiagnosed approximately 50% of the Walmart employees with back injuries. As a result of these misdiagnoses, most of these employees underwent needless surgeries for injuries instead of less expensive, non-surgical treatments.

Last month, I wrote about the importance of replacing aged medical imaging equipment. But how is it best to go about convincing the leadership of a facility to invest in new equipment?

Radiology departments, imaging facilities, and private practices need to replace or add medical imaging equipment and technology continually. Often the reason for these new purchases is merely to replace old or broken equipment. Sometimes it is to acquire new technology, improve patient experience, or to achieve a higher throughput of patients. But no matter the reason, cost and revenue implications are the two usual speed-bumps in the road.

In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the x-ray while working with a cathode-ray tube in his laboratory in Wuerzburg University in Germany. He called this mysterious ray 'x-radiation' because he didn't know what it was. This mysterious radiation could pass through most substances that absorb visible light. From this discovery, Roentgen discovered that this ray could pass through human skin, but not bones nor metal objects. Though one of his first successful images was of his wife, Bertha's hand, his interest was not for medical application; instead, he wished to use it for commercial applications. It wasn't until February 1896 when John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England that an x-ray image was used in a surgical operation.

From these early images to today, medical imaging has become a crucial element in the modern healthcare system. Modern radiology provides today's physicians with a fast and accurate diagnosis to facilitate the improvement in health outcomes and quality of life for the patients. However, this 'fast and accurate diagnosis' is often dependant on the equipment used to take the x-ray. A major factor in the 'fast and accurate diagnosis' is age and the modernity of technology of the equipment used in our healthcare facilities today.

In 1994, a relatively unknown former investment banker decided that he had a better way to sell books than the typical brick and mortar stores. He named this company Cadabra and consulted with former executives in the publishing industry to provide consumers a new way to shop for books.

His lawyer told him that 'Cadabra' sounded too much like 'Cadaver,' so he then tried out 'Relentless.' This time his friends advised him that this name was too aggressive for a business. By now, most of you will know this is the story of Jeff Bezos and the founding of Amazon. (If you type relentless.com into your browser, guess where the page redirects.) Over the next 25 years, Jeff Bezos and Amazon have rewritten business as we know it and has turned many industries on their heads.