vrad visionary innovation assessment

VISIONARY INNOVATION ASSESSMENT: The Path to Clinical And Operational Quality Improvement through Medical Imaging Analytics

Nadim Michel Daher

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Visionary Innovation Assessment

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISIONARY INNOVATION AWARD………………………………………………. 3

Key Industry Challenges Addressed by vRad…………………………………………………………………. 3

Improving Clinical and Operational Quality: A Pressing Mandate ................................ 3

BEST PRACTICE AWARD ANALYSIS FOR VRAD……………………………………………………………………. 4

Key Performance Drivers for vRad………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Understanding and Leverage of Mega Trends .............................................................. 5

Vision Integration Into Strategy Excellence ................................................................. 5

Efficacy of Innovation Process ...................................................................................... 6

Degree of Impact on Business and Society ................................................................... 6

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 7

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISIONARY INNOVATION AWARD

Visionary Innovation is the ability to innovate today in the light of perceived changes and

opportunities that will arise from Mega Trends in the future. It is the ability to scout and

detect unmet (and as yet undefined) needs and proactively address them with disruptive

solutions to cater to new and unique consumers, lifestyles, technologies and markets in

the future. At the heart of visionary innovation is a deep understanding of the future

implications and global ramifications of Mega Trends, in order to correctly identify and

capture niche and white space market opportunities in the future.

Key Industry Challenges Addressed by vRad

Improving Clinical and Operational Quality: A Pressing Mandate

One of the main mandates of the ongoing reform of the U.S. healthcare system calls on

providers to achieve higher quality of care and patient outcomes, albeit while reducing

every possible cost inefficiency in the care cycle. However, Frost & Sullivan notes that

more than four years into the current reform cycle, providers are still confronted with a

prerequisite step preventing them from starting to effectively address this important

objective. Indeed, before they can work to improve their quality metrics and outcomes,

providers need to be able to measure these metrics. Only then can they begin to move

forward, using these measures as a baseline for assessing and improving their current

clinical and financial performance.

“The call for increasing

quality of care and

creating cost efficiencies

is critical to medical

imaging enterprises as

well.

However, medical

imaging today is less

well-prepared than many

other clinical specialties

to embark on such data-

driven improvement

efforts.”

What is Happening?

Mo

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thca

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PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

COMPARATIVE ANALYTICS

PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS

What Will Happen?

Ne

w A

nal

ytic

s To

ols

N

ee

ded

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Insights from clinical and business analytics are rapidly emerging as the preferred tools for

helping providers pinpoint the potential areas of improvement, and start making data-

supported decisions to improve internal processes. Being a healthcare-wide mandate, the

call for increasing quality of care and creating cost efficiencies is critical to medical imaging

enterprises as well. However, medical imaging today is less well-prepared than many

other clinical specialties to embark on such data-driven improvement efforts.

While some innovators are already leveraging some basic analytics solutions, Frost &

Sullivan independent analysis suggests that the vast majority of medical imaging providers

are still far from being able to confidently measure, analyze, benchmark, monitor and

improve their clinical and operational quality metrics. As such, industry vendors have a key

role to play in breaking the current deadlock hampering effective analytics in imaging.

Frost & Sullivan believes that vRad is steadfastly remaining both visionary and proactive in

the medical imaging space; the company is truly innovating with analytics tools that help

ease and accelerate providers’ transition to value-based imaging.

BEST PRACTICE AWARD ANALYSIS FOR vRAD

Frost & Sullivan conducts cutting-edge visionary research by tracking the most important

global Mega Trends, potential scenarios of specific trends in 2020 and beyond, and the

macro to micro implications of these new Mega Trends. The unique feature of this

research, compared to other predictive programs, lies in its ability to not only identify and

evaluate emerging Mega Trends, but to also help clients translate those opportunities to

everyday business and personal life – using the macro to micro approach.

Key Performance Drivers for vRad

For the Visionary Innovation Award, the following four criteria were used to benchmark

vRad’s performance against key competitors:

• Understanding and Leverage of Mega Trends

• Vision Integration Into Strategy Excellence

• Efficacy of Innovation Process

• Degree of Impact on Business and Society

“Notwithstanding their

high promise, quality

analytics still pose major

challenges for imaging

providers.

Despite the mounting

external and internal

pressure, many of them are

still uncertain about the

right action plan.”

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Criterion 1: Understanding and Leverage of Mega Trends

Today, imaging providers recognize the importance and the necessity of building up their

quality analytics capabilities. Quality analytics spread all the clinical, operational and

financial aspects of the imaging enterprise and hold considerable promise for the future of

each area. However, notwithstanding their high promise, quality analytics still pose major

challenges for imaging providers. Despite the mounting external and internal pressure,

many of them are still uncertain about the right action plan for them.

Providers must properly evolve in an imaging and healthcare informatics information

technology (IT) ecosystem that lacks the required integration and interoperability of

disparate systems, and the ready-access to proprietary databases. This IT challenge makes

it both difficult and expensive for them capture and normalize all the relevant data points

disseminated across various departments and points of care throughout the enterprise;

however, this is necessary to allow them to paint a full picture for their clinical,

operational, or financial performance in imaging.

Criterion 2: Vision Integration into Strategy Excellence

As an imaging provider itself, vRad was among the first companies to sense this rising

need for better quality analytics in the imaging industry. A few years ago, as the pressure

started to build up on imaging providers both on the technical and the professional sides

of the business, vRad was quick to react internally by developing automated mechanisms

to measure and monitor in real time the clinical and operational quality of its imaging

services.

As part of this effort to develop its own clinical and business intelligence as a way to

improve the quality of its interpretation services, vRad has leveraged its access to a large

customer clinical database, which includes hundreds of radiology groups in hospital

departments and ambulatory facilities. Building on this exceptionally wide view it has on

the imaging market, vRad recently started a gradual release of quality analytics datasets

known as the Radiology Patient CareSM (RPC) Indices. Since then, the company has been

actively disseminating these findings-based metrics into the wider imaging market,

including, but not limited to, its own customer base.

“vRad’s (RPC) Indices

provides radiology

imaging providers with

actionable insights that

are ideally suited to help

them benchmark the

performance of their

imaging facility and

radiology group

Being a prominent and

longstanding service

provider to hospital

emergency departments, it

is quite natural that vRad

started to deliver its

insights to the broader

marketplace.”

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Criterion 3: Efficacy of Innovation Process

vRad’s (RPC) Indices provide radiology imaging providers with actionable insights that are

ideally suited to help them benchmark the performance of their imaging facility and

radiology group. The datasets have the unique ability to help providers identify potential

areas of weaknesses and shed light on any workflow bottlenecks in their clinical,

operational and business processes. This higher visibility into the quality of their services

and patient outcomes is more essential than ever for providers today. Indeed, these

efforts can gradually allow providers to uncover best practices and refine processes across

the various enterprise functions.

Being a prominent and longstanding service provider to hospital emergency departments,

it is quite natural that vRad started to deliver its insights to the broader marketplace. The

first set of a sequence of upcoming RPC releases, which pertains to the use of computed

tomography (CT) in the emergency department, have already started to benefit U.S.

providers. A few months after their release and now followed by a second release, they

are helping hospitals and radiology groups drive innovation with quality analytics. In

addition, the geographical differences highlighted by these wide datasets represent critical

information for large hospital, health systems and payers, as they strive to make progress

and drive efficiencies with population health management. A third release included

datasets that offer a 24/7 view inside a radiology department, using interactive

infographics that show study Relative Value Units (RVUs), modality mix, patient type and

reading location by three distinct radiology shifts.

Criterion 4: Degree of Impact on Business and Society

Being statistically significant, vRad’s RPC Indices align well with imaging enterprises’

necessary efforts to enhance not only their own operational performance, but also the

value and quality of service they deliver as part of the broader healthcare enterprise. Over

the long-term, online monitoring of quality metrics can provide overarching value to the

broader healthcare industry by trickling down to the patient population as well. By

achieving higher quality and cost-effectiveness in imaging, the imaging enterprise

contributes more effectively to the wider effort of decreasing patient re-admissions and

improving the patient experience.

As for vRad’s business itself, Frost & Sullivan notes that the benefits of its innovative

quality analytics strategy are multi-fold. Providers wanting to align their internal quality

metrics with the RPC Indices can do so independently, and can also partner with vRad for

its analytics solutions. This represents an opportunity for vRad to evolve into being more

of a strategic partner for its radiology group and health system customers, and to create

synergies with their partners helping them measure quality, value and performance as the

industry moves away from volume-based imaging into the era of value-based imaging.

“Online monitoring of

quality metrics can provide

overarching value to the

broader healthcare

industry by trickling down

to the patient population as

well.

By achieving higher quality

and cost-effectiveness in

imaging, the imaging

enterprise contributes more

effectively to the wider

effort of decreasing patient

re-admissions and

improving the patient

experience.”

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CONCLUSION

There is a pressing mandate in the healthcare industry that calls on providers to be able to

achieve higher quality of care and better patient outcomes, while at the same time making

their care delivery much more cost-efficient than it is today. Most providers however,

particularly medical imaging enterprises, are still largely unprepared to meet these high-

level objectives which they are hard-pressed to achieve on various fronts.

Since 2013, vRad has embarked on an innovative strategic pathway addressing the

increasingly important area of analytics in radiology and imaging. The company’s proactive

approach is acting to increase the mindshare of vRad in the marketplace, and positioning

the company as a thought leader and visionary force in the medical imaging industry.

Working as a facilitator in breaking the current deadlock that is hampering effective

analytics in imaging, vRad has developed a wide set of findings-based metrics known as

the Radiology Patient Care Indices. These RPC Indices that vRad has started to disseminate

into the wider imaging market help providers pinpoint the potential areas of improvement

for their enterprise, in order to start making data-supported decisions for improving their

internal processes.

“The company’s

proactive approach is

acting to increase the

mindshare of vRad in the

marketplace, and

positioning the company

as a thought leader and

visionary force in the

medical imaging

industry”

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About vRad (Virtual Radiologic)

vRad (Virtual Radiologic) is a global telemedicine company and the nation’s largest

radiology practice with over 450 physicians. Our patented software, data, and clinical

processes allow referring physicians to quickly and securely pass patient imaging and

information to specialists in order to improve the speed, accuracy, and cost of clinical

diagnosis. vRad’s physicians and operational platform serve 2,000+ hospitals, reading over

7 million patient radiology reports annually. vRad is also a leader in healthcare

informatics: its RPCSM (Radiology Patient Care) Indices are the first findings-based national

and peer group benchmarking metrics for the use of radiology imaging. Our analytics

platform includes over 24 million imaging studies, growing at 600,000 per month. vRad ’s

clinical expertise and evidence-based insight help clients make better decisions for the

health of their patients and their practices. For more information, visit www.vrad.com. For

real-time updates, follow us on Twitter (@vRad), or “like” us on Facebook.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in

partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment

community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership,

please visit http://www.frost.com.

vrad visionary innovation assessment

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