Candescent Health and Cleveland Clinic are embarking on a joint effort to spread advanced radiology services to health systems across the U.S., and they plan to do it through the cloud.
The two entities say they will work together to develop new products that improve the productivity, efficiency and diagnostic performance of radiology practices, and improve healthcare value through those enhancements as well as defined quality standards and the creation of a nationwide, cloud-based radiology network.
Their work will build on Candescent Health’s RadPerform platform, which is described as a combination of cloud-based software, personal service, and data analytics.
“As a customer of our cloud-based service, RadPerform, Cleveland Clinic will improve patient care, increase radiologist efficiency and satisfaction, and deliver greater healthcare value,” Candescent Health CEO Scott Seidelmann told Healthcare Dive.
Cleveland Clinic is already one of the top five radiology providers in the country, with more than 177 radiologists conducting an estimated 2.3 million studies per year.
“Not only will Candescent benefit from having Cleveland Clinic as a customer,” Seidelmann continued, “but together we will develop new products that enable radiologists to greater healthcare value in both a fee-for-service environment, but more importantly in a value-based environment.”
On its end, Cleveland Clinic will also have the option to make an equity investment in Candescent Health.
The solution utilizes the cloud for both strategic and financial reasons, Seidelmann says.
“The cloud lowers the cost of delivering HCIT services like ours, but more importantly enables us to share analytics, insights, and expertise across all of our customers.”
Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, voiced a similar sentiment in a prepared statement.
"The healthcare model of the future requires that we find better, more efficient ways to provide services,” Cosgrove said. “That will only happen through technological advances that lower costs, drive efficiencies and allow doctors to put patients first.”
Candescent Health highlights RadPerform was designed by radiologists and integrates three major components:
- A cloud-based, data/rules-driven workflow that includes smart work-lists, targeted routing, schedule management, and quality-management;
- 24x7 case and workflow monitoring and radiologist support to expedite cases and communications; and
- Ongoing performance analytics with recommendations for adjusting operations to satisfy desired KPIs.
The goal is to streamline administrative tasks so radiologists can focus on patient care.
Candescent’s website suggests radiology permeates every facet of healthcare through x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound, radiation therapy and other procedures, making it “arguably the most important function within any hospital” as well as “a huge contributor to a health system’s financial well-being.”
Given that, Candescent predicts the impact of transforming radiology to be far-reaching.
"We are thrilled to be working with a healthcare innovator and leader like Cleveland Clinic to accelerate what we believe is an essential shift in the radiology care model that drives greater healthcare value on a nationwide basis," Seidelmann said in statement about the partnership.
He suggests Cleveland Clinic has not only the foresight to understand radiology is changing, but the willingness to lead the field through that transformation.
“This fundamental reengineering of the radiology care model will have an enormous positive impact on patients, referring providers and healthcare systems overall,” Seidelmann says.