In a recent RT Image Q&A I was asked about the role of vendors and their efforts to make it more appealing for a private practice to purchase its own equipment. The reporter wanted to know if this is a new trend or something radiologists have always had to struggle with. Below are some excerpts from my response.
Vendor incentives have always been there, but never to the extent that it is now. Basically, vendors will sell to anyone that has the money to buy the machine. You look at the stock market and these companies are in trouble. They need to sell equipment - that's how they make their profit. Specifically with ultrasound equipment, because it is less expensive, the vendors emphasize to potential buyers that, "You're not going to do any damage to the patient; you're not going to be using ionizing radiation."
[Untrained physicians] feel as though there is a magic button that they will press that will give them an image. The service provider will then either rely on the sonographer or send it to India or some service and get a low-cost reading (Read Dr. Pavlov's recent post on teleradiology), or they will read it themselves thinking they have the necessary expertise - which they may or may not have.
Non-radiology physicians do not fall under the scrutiny of the American Board of Radiology, which requires written and oral examinations and verification of four years of training to be a board-certified radiologist. Non-radiology physicians do not get extensive training in imaging and their certification boards do not test for imaging expertise neither acquiring the image or image interpreter. Patients and possibly third-party payers are not always aware of that.
This response and other postings that I have done in the short time I have been blogging for Huffington Post further validate my claim and belief that "Not All Images Are Created Equal." Patients need to ask "Who is taking my image and who will be reading that image?" The answer should always be "A trained certified radiology technologist should take the image under the supervision of a Board Certified Radiologist and only a Board Certified, and preferably a subspecialty Fellowship trained, Radiologist should be interpreting the image."