Director for Enterprise Imaging and EI Subject Matter Expert Kyle Souligne shares his insights on the annual KLAS Research Annual Summit, which took place in Utah last month. 

In late April, I had the opportunity to participate in the annual KLAS Enterprise Imaging Summit and was impressed with the engagement and depth of conversations. The Summit featured fantastic speakers, who covered a range of topics, lively break out sessions and candid conversations.

Over the course of three days in Park City, Utah, healthcare providers shared their thoughts and offered valuable insights about various enterprise imaging topics. Here are some key takeaways from the summit:

1. Continued consolidation and outcomes-driven missions are key drivers for health systems to be more strategic about their imaging decisions.
2. Setting up solid governance, similar to what was done with EMR implementations, is imperative to success.
3. POCUS and Pathology are emerging as service lines that need to be incorporated into any enterprise imaging strategy.
4. Cloud technology is fast becoming a solution to unlocking efficiency to enable internal staff to focus on higher-value activities.
5. Security remains a top concern of health systems. There is real value in not operating in a local data center, and a cloud technology solution is increasingly providing world-class security that most providers can’t support themselves.
6. Currently, good AI applications can see things the radiologist might not, but radiologists are taking in more data and surfacing decisions that today’s AI models aren’t. The future is multi-modal AI, in which various data types (image, text, speech, numerical data) are combined with multiple intelligence processing algorithms to achieve higher performances. When algorithms have contextual awareness of one another we will see a major force multiplier of value and effectiveness.
7. To truly set off mass adoption for AI, imaging providers are looking for more evidence that the implementation of AI can be repeatable and cost effective. A key point of AI delivering on its promised value is continued evidence that AI is really enhancing detection rather than confirming detection, and thus enhancing clinical confidence at scale and delivering on efficiency gains.

My favorite quote at the summit was from Nina Kottler (MD Radiology Partners): “AI and Radiology is truly a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup opportunity – better together.”

Leaving the KLAS Enterprise Imaging Summit, I felt the excitement for what’s to come. The event provided valuable insights into the journey to enterprise imaging, the benefits and challenges of cloud computing, and the potential of artificial intelligence in medical imaging. Providers are looking for solid governance, repeatable and cost-effective AI implementation, and evidence that AI is enhancing detection to deliver on its promised value.

With newer cloud technology platforms and the emergence of multi-modal AI, providers are positive they can achieve higher performance and efficiency gains. Overall, the summit highlighted the importance of strategic decision-making, collaboration, and innovation in the field of enterprise imaging with providers and partners.

Are you intrigued by the potential of Enterprise Imaging? We’d love to hear from you. Let’s start a conversation.

Kyle Souligne, May 2024.