Live from RSNA 2025: Optimizing radiology workflow with digital tools

We see our patients a lot of times that they're worse possible day, but we can make a difference to them. So if we can give our technologists the tools to make that easier so they can still make that connection with their patients, then we've done our job. Welcome to Health Care Perspectives, a podcast by Siemens Healthinears about medical breakthroughs with the power to improve lives everywhere. You've just heard Kelly McFarland, Wake Med's Executive Director of Imaging Services, telling us how implementing artificial intelligence in radiology departments has impacted patient care for the better. In this episode, Caterina Schmittler, US Product and Business Manager for Advanced Visualization and AI at Siemens Healthinears is joined by our guests live from RSNA 2025. The annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America to discuss how AI-powered imaging and intelligent automation have the power to transform radiology. Hello, I'm Caterina Schmittler and I'm the North America Product and Business Manager for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Visualization. Welcome to your live today at Chicago for the 2025 RSNA meeting. Medical imaging is already an integral part in modern health care and as hospitals are facing increasing imaging demands and staffing challenges, new solutions using artificial intelligence are helping to ease the load. In today's panel conversation where we discuss the increase of AI in radiology, I'm joined by three industry leaders who played a pivotal role in implementing AI solutions in their respective workplaces. So please welcome Dr. John McManami, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado and Associate Chair at Denver Health, Kelly McFarland Executive Director at Wake Med's Imaging Services, and Dustin Allen, CT Scancer Provider at Wake Med. Together, we will explore what intelligent imaging looks like and its potential on enhancing quality, accelerate diagnosis, reduce burnout, and overall patient care. Can please just everyone introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their educational background and their expertise and where their interests lie. John McManami, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado and Associate Chair at Denver Health, I've been there for a little over five years and then the decade prior to that I was at NYU or I also did a lot of clinical operational stuff and was a chief of ED radiology for seven of those years. I'm Kelly McFarland, I'm the Executive Director of Imaging at Wake Med Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. I've been with Wake Med for about four and a half years. I'm a technologist by train. I trained a long time ago, but found that CT was my passion. So I did CT for like a long time, so yeah, love that. I'm Dustin Allen, I am the Executive Director at Wake Med. I've been there for a little over ten years prior to that. I was about ten years at another imaging facility. Thank you so much for joining us today. So each of you had already faced a lot of challenges and you have implemented intelligent imaging in your respective workplaces. So at Denver Health, the emergency department is facing immense volumes. How have you reshaped the workflow in order to manage this? At Denver Health, we've seen over an 80% increase in volume over the last five or six years for EDCT. It is just kind of overwhelmed our texts and the scanners that we have. So we had to figure out a way to offload both our texts and the machines. And so we were fortunate to partner with Siemens using their single VS software with their rapid results technology and their alpha technology to build all of the images that the doctors use to make the diagnosis. And that has been great because it's really allowed us to keep up with demand both in our ER and outpatient settings so we can make the diagnosis for the patient at the time they come in. So Kelly, you are overseeing all the operations across wakement. What strategic goals led you to consolidate and also modernize your imaging technology? And how did you go about doing this, especially about the impact of the business and the staff and patients? So a few years ago Dustin and I worked with our radiology group to bring in House 3D post processing inside. We had a lot of unexpected benefits from using that but we leveraged the Siemens partnership in order to stand this up internally. So we had a CT coach that we transferred over to like a single coach. So we had flipped all of our outsourcing from a third party vendor to Siemens exclusively while we were able to hire and train our own staff. We did a lot of consolidation within WakeMed within our IT department and we are strictly a single via platform. We don't have other applications that we use. So we just kind of used that single and leveraged everything to bring it in House. We were able to hire and retain a lot of different staff, especially the more experienced technologists. We didn't want to lose all of that experience out the door. They're tired of the front line interaction because CT text, I mean they're just like in the line of fire all the time. But we were able to retain a lot of that knowledge and we created a different career path for some of our more seasoned technologists. And in the process, we were able to save a lot of money by bringing it in even with the salaries and benefits and everything. We were able to save substantial money by bringing it in House. So Dustin, WakeMed has implemented automated post processing. How has it impacted your department's ability to handle also more patience every day? I think this is very similar to something you had spoken about earlier is the volume is not going to stop. So having somebody else, essentially like another tech there, to do your processing for you, it just feeds up time. So we're able to cut between five to nine minutes per scan just by having something sitting there doing it. And the post processing is great. You can't tell it's done anything automatic. It's just like a human's there doing it. It's wonderful. So I mean just having basically half of every scan done saves a lot of time. So intelligent imaging just hasn't only changed the workflow. It also has improved some quality and accuracy and also patient outcomes. So Kelly, can you walk us through the moment where you realized you could not only improve the image quality but also streamline IT processes and ensure some consistency? One of the benefits that we found with implementing single in our internal lab was our technologists were able to give real-time feedback to the 3D lab technologists were able to give that feedback to the CT tech. So if you would have done this or you know the next time to kind of tweak this maybe it's your protocol or your scanning technique or something. So we were able to provide a better end product for radiologists but we were also able to improve the quality at the scanner itself. So that was a big benefit for us but also the radiologists were able to give us real-time feedback also because we're in house they're actually all remote now. But I mean you know there's that communication between all of them. So the the radiologists can reach out to whoever's on 24/7 for 3D lab and say hey can you give me this it may be something out of the ordinary but if it's something that's going to provide real-time benefit to the diagnosis they're happy to do that. So Dustin when you shorten exam times how do you ensure that the diagnostic quality and also by extension of the clinical confidence is uncompromised. I think it allows techs to focus more on scanning the patient and not worrying about having to rush through the next step and being able to spend more time with the patient makes them more comfortable focusing on the scan itself builds that quality up and yes somebody else or automation may be doing the post-processing but that just leaves more time for the tech to focus on what's important which is the patient. Another question for you Kelly so what impact can automation have also in identifying subtle findings that can often be overlooked and go unnoticed. So what does it ultimately mean for patient care? It brings a lot of benefit to the patient. I mean we do have a IRAD companion for lung nodule identification. So if we can identify a very small nodule on just a random scan, whether it's an ED scan or just an outpatient or something, if you can identify that at the very early stages, the outcomes for the patient themselves are are greatly improved. So as the role of artificial intelligence and radiology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, there are only few aspects which are really untouched. At Denver Health, how do intelligent emitting tools support the staff in such a fast pace environment? One of the great things that this workflow has done for us is it's offloaded the text and so just kind of as Dustin was saying, there's so much less that they have to worry about on the back end of the scan so they can work on getting positioning right and the acquisition right for the image quality. That has resulted in just profound improvement in our scan times and clearing the scanner for the next patient. So we found in an individual exam it's 50 to 75% and then when we looked at big data sets of 14,000 patients split between before and after our capacity increased with just a single change, 36% and that's over almost 14,000 patients and so with that same tech, they felt less burden, it allowed them to keep up which took some of the burden off and so I think that that's been a huge one. So Dustin from a supervised perspective, how do you handle now your day-to-day work with all this automation now happening and what increased efficiency does really stand out for you? In general AI is the future that is what it's going to be so just getting people to get on board with what this is the future this is what it looks like. Just walking them through the day-to-day operations of we're going to have AI take over part of your job here and explaining them that's not a big deal. This is still going to let you spend time more with the patients, you're still going to get the scan patients. Walking them through that and then it's made reporting a lot easier because when we look at turnaround times or anything like that, I can attribute what time the techs have had with the patient and what time the automation has. So it's made things a lot more efficient. I mean it really is the future of our department. Yeah, that's really important. That's Denver Health. How do you approach training and professional development in an environment where technology is evolving and changing all the time? Yeah, I mean I think one of the things that this the workflow solves is as the volume is continuing to increase, there's more young x-ray techs generally coming in to do CT and they're not as experienced as the people you've been able to retain by using this. And so by offloading a lot of that gives them that breathing room in that space to focus on the initial parts of the scan then obviously you can work on the kind of the finer aspects on the end. But it really is kind of a nice solution to the current problem we're all facing where we just don't have enough CT techs and the ones that are coming in are often very inexperienced. So I think that that's been a big positive. Also Kelly, can you tell me in what ways post-processing automation influenced your staff retention? So CT techs are very difficult to find. I mean there's a global shortage for all of them. We partner with some of the community colleges around and do apprenticeships for CT and MR. So in doing the CT apprenticeships, I think our first group we had for maybe from one of the community colleges. This year we had 14 apprentices and a lot of applicants that but we only have so many scanners that we can put them at. Now we have people that truly want to get into CT because they actually see the AI part, the 3D processing as their next step after CT. But in bringing them in, we're now requiring them to work in CT for five years which helps that staffing challenge. But it also builds their base knowledge before they can move to the 3D lab. So we're just trying to build our own career ladder for them. We also cross trained MRI techs if they're interested also, but just solving our immediate problem for the CT techs is actually benefiting the 3D lab also. That's a really great impact. Thank you for sharing. John, can you also speak about that too? So in what ways post-processing automation influenced your staff retention in radiology technologists? Even using a new technology was relatively seamless as it could be, and so that helped us not lose people. And I think just by taking that load off initially so that they don't have to do all of the parts, but also again as we were saying earlier, by unburdening them and allowing us to keep up with the ED load and allowing us to keep up with the inpatients and the outpatients, they're not getting constant calls, harassing, digitally nudging them, pay when are you going to scan my patients? And I think that's been a big delighter. You made a comment earlier, met one of the sessions where you had a technologist that had retired. If you want to tell that story about how he thought the automation thing was going. He has now since retired, but I asked him how it went the night before when he was working. He said it was the first time that they had caught up overnight that he could remember, so years and years. So that speaks beyond the numbers to the impact of how much it helps out the techs. I think also, you know, if you ask our techs right now, if you'd like to go back to the conventional workflow without Shingo, they'd say no and they'd leave. Yeah, yeah. Really interesting and how impactful, like something that can be, you always look at numbers, but you really look at the people and how it impacts them. If you look at the future and we mentioned that a little bit before already, it would like to know from every one of you going forward, what is the most significant impact you believe AI will have starting with you, John. I think it's really going to impact everything. I think the large language models are going to improve the information that comes in. I think AI and automation with VIA is going to improve our capacity, our abilities, scan people when they need to be scanned and not waiting weeks or in the ER, not waiting extra hours. I think that the alignment protocols are going to help radiologists read them faster and how it helps out with hanging protocols, read faster and then populating the reports. I think it's going to help that whole stream from beginning to end. That's going to help us provide better care. Kelly, what are your thoughts? I agree 100% with everything that you said. I think that AI is also going to play a big role in how we educate our new technologists, how they come in, because how AI is developing. I know that there are different applications in every modality. I don't think that we've even scratched the surface of how AI is going to impact imaging all the way, so it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds from diagnostic imaging through CT or PET or whatever. I think it's the CRTIC flow. The CRM that you have, I think that is amazing, that you can go in and just program the CRM for the surgeon, just hand him the controller and the worlds as these fingertips. So I think that's pretty amazing technology. Justin, so what are your thoughts on what's the most impact? I mean, it's hard to think of what else can come. I mean, we're already saying that we can do more work with better quality, with less text and less scanners. I mean, that alone is amazing. So I'm just I'm ready to see where it's going to go with there, whether it crosses over to the radiologist reading or like I said, training. I think it's going to be a big thing with this, but just already what it's done so far has just been amazing. Is there anything you'd like to see as a next development? I would like to see some AI tools, you know, maybe in our community colleges when they are training our next generation of, you know, technologists, get them early because this generation of students, they were raised on digital technology. So get them early, get them interested early in middle school or high school. So then it's it's an easy leap into healthcare. But I think that if we can attract them by the toys that we have, I think that, you know, that will help build our pipeline. Let's talk about that more because I'm interested you being a supervisor. Is there anything you'd like to see in the next five years, especially how it might change leadership and the staff you manage? The reporting that is available through the different platforms, I get the productivity standards and everything, but I was also a technologist for a very long time. So the numbers show one thing, but there's the human aspect too. So, you know, it's like you were able to ease the burden for your technologist by streamlining some of the processes. I think that that is very important, but I don't ever want to take away from the benefit that the technologist actually brings because we see our patients a lot of times that they're, they're worst possible day, but we can make a difference to them. John, do you want to share a little bit about your vision? What you've said is I think it's spot on. I mean, I would love to see we are different health systems and sometimes I guess there's a little competition there, but I mean, I would love to see more institutions doing. I think what you guys are doing and what we're doing kind of spread this out because I think it is a huge benefit that radiology departments can see and therefore ED departments can see in by doing that, you know, and by taking the load off of our technologists, not just enabling us to scan more people, but yeah, you're seeing people when they are very scared, sick, or both, and technologists are the face of radiology departments and by freeing them up to interact with the patients and have a little bit more time. I think it's extremely powerful, and so I'd like to see more people doing it. Well, it's such an exciting time here in radiology and what we're having given now with all these incredible advancements and I want to say big thank you to our three speakers and their generous time in providing their insights. Thank you. You have been listening to Healthcare Perspectives, a podcast by Siemens Healthineers. We pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare for everyone everywhere, sustainably. Subscribe to us and always get the latest episode in your podcast feed or visit Siemens-healthineers.com/podcastformore. The intro and ending segment of this episode contain AI-generated audio. The opinions expressed by the guests and contributors in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Siemens Healthineers. 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