MORGANTOWN, W.V., Jan. 27, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- A new company with a novel approach to dealing with the radiologist shortage announced its formation today. Amerirad, headquartered in Morgantown, West Virginia, will begin providing final radiology reports to hospitals and clinics across the country via its staff of board-certified radiologists using innovative teleradiology technology from Philips Medical Systems.
The concept is simple: due to a radiologist shortage, many rural and smaller hospitals have few or no board-certified radiologists on staff; many radiology groups and imaging centers are hard-pressed for radiologist resources when they face overload, sub-specialty, vacation or retirement situations. Amerirad, through teleradiology, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), voice-activated dictation systems from MedQuist, and its cadre of university-affiliated, board-certified radiologists, provides these facilities with preliminary and final radiology reports in just minutes.
Amerirad is the brainchild of founder, president and CEO Dennis Burton, MD, who was looking for a solution to the fact that imaging volumes are increasing faster than new radiologists are entering the field. The rate of imaging utilization is increasing by 6% each year, while the number of new radiologists is increasing by only 2% per year, according to the American College of Radiology's Commission on Human Resources. Dr. Burton's leadership experience at Radiology Inc., Tri-State MRI and as past president of both the West Virginia Radiological Society and State Medical Association gave him the experience and industry understanding that could lead to a new service model to address a large market need.
Said Dr. Burton, "Both patients and facilities will benefit from access to the nation's leading radiologists: hospitals can provide more services, faster, and patients will not have to travel long distances to get imaging done."
As a Philips Strategic Partner, Amerirad uses the latest PACS to ensure that time-sensitive information is integrated across doctors, clinical customers and patients. Amerirad has optimized workflow within its comprehensive, turnkey radiology solution, ensuring quality results and lowering the cost for end users. Of particular note is Amerirad's use of sub-specialty radiologists, ensuring that hospitals can access interpreters of any type of imaging modality, including MRI, PET, CT, nuclear radiology, plain radiographs and ultrasound. In addition, Amerirad offers consulting and radiology management services to hospitals and imaging centers.
Unlike the after-hours and temp agency approach to radiology reading services, Amerirad radiologists are certified to produce final image reading reports, saving hospitals and clinics valuable time and money.
To find out more information about Amerirad and its teleradiology reading services, go to www.amerirad.com.