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Point of View – Face Time: Making a New Face for Radiology and the ACR
Co-Authors, on behalf of the RFS Executive Committee:
Charles W. Bowkley III, M.D.,
Vanessa Van Duyn Wear, M.D.,
Arun Krishnaraj, M.D.
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The views that the author expresses in this article are strictly their own and should not be attributed to the American College of Radiology.
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Recent debate among ACR leaders focuses on the visibility of
radiologists and the recognition we are (not) given as integral members
of the "treating" team. While we may try hard to convince our fellow
colleagues in medicine that we are more than just "report generators,"
radiologists are failing to be considered "doctors" in the Norman
Rockwell sense of the word.
In business, three different types of marketing strategies are used:
Lead, challenge or follow. What radiology needs is to develop an
approach that combines these three concepts: lead the specialty into the
light, challenge the patient to know his/her radiologist and follow the
momentum this advertisement will generate to improve awareness across
the country.
Reminding our referring clinicians that we are professional consultants
and that our expert interpretation of diagnostic radiology tests truly
contributes to the diagnosis and treatment of patients is essential to
our future as physicians. In order to disseminate this type of
information broadly, we, the executive committee of the RFS, believe it must start at the grass
roots level with our generation of radiologists.
We need to be more visible, even at the resident level, by reaching out
to our colleagues and making sure they know we are providing "patient
care", not image interpretation. Active participation on hospital
committees and involvement in patient care directives will help "spread
the word" that radiologists are a critical component of patient care.
Some suggest that we as physicians introduce ourselves to the patient,
stating that we are the doctors who will be reading the radiology
studies, and we are "your radiology doctor." Advertising campaigns such
as "Who is your radiologist?" or "Have you spoken to the doctor reading
your x-ray?" may be an easy way to increase our visibility.
At this year’s AMA meeting, a member of the YPS suggested making time
each day to bring at least one patient to the reading room to review
his/her images. Most radiologists may find this task difficult with the
ongoing increase in study volume. However, this may be an integral step
towards raising awareness that radiologists are a staple in patient care
planning.
Currently, the ACR is taking the lead by developing a marketing strategy
to increase our visibility. We, as members of the RFS, must challenge
ourselves to be readily available and easily accessible as consultants
to our patients and other physicians. We must persevere in this arena,
working to increase visibility as medical consultants, not test
interpreters.
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