East Alabama Medical Heart (EAMC) in Opelika, Alabama, reviews that it has seen important enhancements in affected person security by higher figuring out alternatives for imaging follow-up—and finishing these follow-ups.
The 340-bed EAMC partnered with Inflo Well being, an organization centered on AI-driven radiology follow-up care orchestration. The collaboration was two-pronged: EAMC participated within the Suggestions Comply with-Up Enchancment Collaborative of the American School of Radiology’s ImPower program, whereas concurrently implementing Inflo Well being’s software program to execute on the measure specs outlined by the collaborative.
The aim was to enhance the constant inclusion of actionable and acceptable follow-up suggestions for by the way detected pulmonary nodules and enhance the share of exams that obtain well timed follow-up. Utilizing Inflo Well being’s radiology-trained AI, which was built-in into present workflows, EAMC elevated completion charges for really useful lung nodule follow-ups by 74%, supported a 20% enchancment in adherence to Fleischner Society Pointers, and elevated employees effectivity by 95%, whereas decreasing danger for sufferers and the group.
The standard enchancment schooling and assist supplied by the ImPower program, coupled with EAMC’s dedication to enhance affected person outcomes, and Inflo Well being’s willingness to adapt their product, made these developments doable, Inflo and EAMC mentioned.
Primarily based on Inflo’s participation in ImPower in partnership with EAMC and their incorporation of the Suggestions Comply with-up collaborative measure specs into the answer’s AI fashions, Inflo Well being certified for ACR’s Studying Community Vendor Accomplice standing.
“Inflo Well being’s collaboration with East Alabama Medical Heart and the ACR Studying Community has dramatically enhanced our method to lung nodule administration and radiology follow-up,” mentioned Melinda Johnson, radiology director at EAMC, in an announcement. “The expertise launched by Inflo Well being has considerably streamlined our processes, decreased handbook effort and boosted employees effectivity. This has additionally enabled us to develop care navigator roles to different scientific areas. This partnership exemplifies how integrating superior expertise with strategic collaboration can set new requirements in radiology practices and operational excellence.”
The collaboration between EAMC, Inflo Well being, and the ACR Studying Community started with knowledge assortment, utilizing Inflo Well being’s AI language fashions and pure language processing to extract and current related knowledge from EAMC’s radiology reviews.
In parallel, the AI findings had been collectively validated by EAMC and Inflo, resulting in improved accuracy of Inflo’s insights and suggestions. This work helped the group acquire consensus round the issue they had been making an attempt to unravel, supplied alternatives for collaboration between group members and in the end accelerated affected person high quality and adherence to really useful follow-ups.
EAMC then carried out Inflo’s appropriateness measures, automating the method of figuring out incidental lung nodules that met the inclusion standards. This decreased the time required from 5 hours per week — a job normally undertaken by employees manually poring over radiology reviews—to simply quarter-hour, representing a 95% effectivity enchancment.
To enhance the completion of really useful imaging follow-ups, EAMC labored to deal with limitations, together with inconsistent communication between acute care and first care. By involving PCPs within the course of and dedicating sources to managing follow-ups, they elevated completion charges by 74%—from 39% to 68%. This joint method not solely enhanced affected person outcomes but in addition generated an estimated $9,000 monthly in extra income, opening the door to funding extra high quality enchancment and affected person security objectives.
“Leveraging expertise to standardize and optimize scientific workflows requires the concerted efforts of organizations and their software program distributors working in tandem, in order that the answer is constructed by understanding the issue” says Judy Burleson, vice chairman of high quality administration packages on the American School of Radiology, in an announcement. “The standard enchancment schooling and assist supplied by the ImPower program, coupled with EAMC’s dedication to enhance affected person outcomes, and Inflo Well being’s willingness to adapt their product, made these developments doable.”
