Data, facts and instruments on the German health system
What it’s all about
Digitisation and artificial intelligence are leading to tangible benefits in radiology for doctors, patients and referring physicians.
Experiences show advantages
Experience with the use of AI in inpatient and outpatient radiology already shows a clear plus in the precision of evaluations and the acceleration of the workflow with the effects of shorter waiting times, faster findings and timely interdisciplinary communication.
Progress creates advantages for all involved
As a result, patient satisfaction increases in terms of quality of care, since there are anxious expectations behind many of the examinations and a long waiting time for both the examination itself and the findings puts a strain on the patients.But referring physicians also benefit, as they gain valuable time to act by accelerating the findings and their transmission.
Outpatient working conditions improve
For radiologists in private practice, digitisation also has the advantage that a large number of administrative tasks for doctors and staff are eliminated, which means, for example, that more time is available for reporting findings and talking to patients. In addition, digitalisation can also cushion some of the negative effects of the shortage of skilled workers and supports remote working.
Radiology practices also suffer from practice management insufficiency
Nevertheless, outpatient radiologists cannot avoid improving their general practice management. At present, they do not use one third of the best practice standards of practice management. these are those regulations, instruments and behaviours that are indispensable for smoothly functioning work even under changing stresses. Although this puts the specialist group clearly above the average of German GP and specialist practices, with just under 50% of unused opportunities, there are still too many misalignments due to the lack of implementation, which can, however, be easily and quickly identified with a practice management benchmarking. How this works is described in the publication “Benchmarking practice management for general practitioners and specialists – method, application and benefits”. It can be ordered free of charge by e-mail to the address post@ifabs.de.
R2049 