HealthData Management - January 2013

◉ CIO, Penn Radiology
◉ CIO, NIH Imaging Sciences Institute
◉ Received Nathan Shock Award from National Institutes of
Health for pioneering work in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
disease using MRI and PET imaging
◉ MBA, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
◉ Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia

While meaningful use is ul- timately all about making smarter decisions, Alberto Goldszal says that for ra- diologists, the smartest
decision right now is not to overthink. “If you focus on
what Stage 1 is about—capturing data—then you’re
fine,” he says, “Don’t dwell on why you’re doing it,”
even if it seems pointless to ask a patient about smok-
ing status when he’s in the office to have a broken arm
X-rayed. Goldszal knows all about capturing data: he
had to capture reams of it as an Alzheimer’s researcher
at Johns Hopkins, and later at the National Institutes
of Health. Once he figured out how to manage his own
department’s data, he started to do the same for other
departments. One thing led to another and now he’s
the CIO for one of the largest independent radiology
practices in the country. University Radiology has 85
radiologists at nine locations in central New Jersey and
does more than a million studies a year. The practice
went to replace its radiology information system in
2009. When Stage 1 meaningful use rules were final-
ized in 2010, its vendor, Medinformatix, Los Angeles,
was able to provide a certified system soon after. More
than 90 percent of the practice’s radiologists have at-
tested, for $1.1 million in incentives so far. “That’s free
cash flow as far as we’re concerned.”
Just Do It
that was prepared early. Because they sell to dif-
ferent specialties, they knew what was coming.
Most radiology vendors weren’t concerned about
meaningful use. They were reacting after the fact
and had to retrofit. And a lot of radiologists didn’t
pay attention to certification. Some of the big RIS
vendors didn’t get certified, and if you didn’t have
a certified product in 2011, you couldn’t take ad-
vantage of the incentive program.

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Only 150 radiologists industrywide attested in 2011, and only 800 attested this year—out of maybe 20,000 who are eligible. A great many radiology groups are no longer vying for the incentive—they are just hoping not to get penalized. Vendors are booked solid for the next year. You can’t just decide to buy a system and have it done right away.