Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
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With the current constraints on health care resources and emphasis on value for money, resource utilization must be constantly revised and its value demonstrated. For this purpose, utilization management (UM) provides a series of methods to evaluate the appropriateness of health care resources. The ultimate goal of UM is to achieve the best patient outcomes using the most appropriate resources. ⋯ The authors offer a practical guide for radiologists in UM, describing its role in today's health care finances. The key issue is to present UM as an approach for improvement that could bring benefits to all parties by adding efficiency to the health care delivery process. Utilization management represents an important opportunity for radiologists to be involved in the decision-making process, regulating the use of their services and providing fast feedback to other specialties that rely on imaging as a complement to their clinical practice.
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Marketing and branding are critical business functions that are often ignored or misapplied in the health care sector. Radiology professionals are facing unprecedented competition, turf battles, and other pressures. ⋯ These "rookie" errors can be avoided by a careful review of the 4 key principles of introductory marketing: product, price, placement, and promotion. This article reviews these concepts as they relate to medical marketing.
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The overall health of academic radiology suffers from insufficient funds and manpower. Although the largest academic programs in the country may have sufficient resources to maintain robust academic environments, one third to half of the academic radiology programs in the United States are struggling to maintain stable academic environments. The impact of an impaired academic radiology enterprise on the specialty of radiology is far reaching. ⋯ Fortunately, radiology is a lucrative specialty, and we have the wherewithal to help ourselves. To ensure a vibrant future for our specialty each of us must accept an obligation to invest in our academic foundation. In particular, private practice radiologists must recognize this obligation and pledge their time and/or resources to help shore up the academic departments.
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Authorship misrepresentations have been described for residency and fellowship applications for various medical specialties. This study assessed the prevalence of misrepresented publications in radiation oncology residency applications. ⋯ The misrepresentation of bibliographic citations does exist among radiation oncology residency applicants. Using a comprehensive search, the authors found that 22% of those who had listed at least 1 article had misrepresented publications on their applications.