It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived in radiology and that AI-based CAD is good for patients.

But what about AI’s effect on your revenue? As highlighted in International Hospital, whether you are an independent radiologist or a large imaging center, you have a business to run, and practices need revenue and cost saving strategies to survive. The good news is that using AI to screen patients for breast cancers doesn’t just benefit patients—research shows that it improves your practice’s bottom line.

Based on a recent study conducted by MD Anderson Cancer Center, AI-based CAD was shown to have a sizeable potential impact on a practice.

Here are three ways adopting AI-based mammography solutions from CureMetrix can benefit your practice financially:  

Everyone is looking for ways to do more work more efficiently, regardless of their industry, because time is money.

FDA-cleared cmTriage highlights cases most likely to be suspicious and helps the radiologist sort the worklist, putting those potentially higher risk cases at the top.

High false positive rates are common with traditional CAD, which impacts efficiency and can have a negative effect on the patient experience. With fewer unnecessary markings, a reduction in keystrokes and clicks, and a more focused experience, radiologists can increase their sensitivity, specificity, and turnaround time.

Because the AI does the initial review, practices can control relative value units (RVUs) and case distribution for the practice that much more efficiently. Overall, your practice can process more mammograms in less time, enabling you to see more patients in a day without increasing physician burnout. All of this can lead to significant savings.

Studies have shown that each false positive can take between 3-7 additional seconds[1] to read and disregard. Alone those may seem like short amounts of time; however, when you consider the number of false positives per image shown with traditional CAD, the number of images per study, and the number of studies per year – those seconds can add up.

At a center such as MD Anderson where over 100,000 mammograms are conducted each year, and based on the study that was conducted showing that CureMetrix AI-CAD had 69% fewer false positive marks, that can add up to a savings of up to 400 hours of labor per year. 

In addition, fewer false marks have the potential to lead to fewer false recalls.  Imagine if that time was used to conduct additional mammograms. In fact, in the MD Anderson study, there were 28% fewer BIRADS 0 cases with marks using CureMetrix AI-CAD cmAssist. This potential recall rate reduction also frees up time to perform more screening mammograms or other diagnostics. Altogether, this could allow for almost a 10% increase in volume capacity. Considering 2020 reimbursement rates and the 100,000 mammogram volume at a facility the size and scale of MD Anderson,  that could mean almost $2M in revenue. 

By increasing the volume capacity and thus the number of screening mammograms at an imaging center, statistically the hospital will see more cancers. For every 10,000 additional mammograms, at least 50 additional cancers should be found. Considering the average cost to treat cancer, this can translate into upwards of $5M in the cost to treat those cancers.  In a capitated care system such as Kaiser, finding those cancers early can significantly reduce those costs.  In a cancer center or hospital system, this could translate into additional diagnostics, treatment or procedures for the hospital.

Key to being successful is reducing your expenses and potential for revenue loss.  Nobody wants to be the target of a wrongful death or malpractice lawsuit for a misread mammogram. While your malpractice insurance may cover your practice for this worst-case scenario, AI-based CAD that enhances your clinical expertise is a good investment for the financial health of your practice, and even better for your patients’ wellbeing.

The CureMetrix detection software cmAssist® acts like an extra pair of eyes that helps radiologists more accurately diagnose more breast cancers and have more confidence in finding them even earlier.

The financial benefits from AI aren’t just from preventing liability—treating late-stage cancer literally costs radiology practices and healthcare systems twice as much as treating the disease in its early stages.   

     3. You can elevate your practice’s reputation and earn patient trust.

Statistics show that a patient’s breast cancer survival rate is five times higher if their cancer is caught early. Diagnosing cancers accurately and early isn’t just essential, it’s foundational to your business and your brand.

Solutions like cmTriage™ and the CureMetrix detection software cmAssist^® can help you determine if a patient’s mammogram is suspicious before she even leaves the office. The peace of mind this can offer is priceless to the patient—and it’s just one example of how using the most cutting-edge AI mammography solutions earns patients’ trust. As a recent survey revealed, 72% of women would be more likely to recommend an imaging center that offers AI-based mammography services over practices that do not. And when patients have a good experience at your practice, they are more likely to return and refer their friends and family members.

Promoting your practice as innovative by putting AI in the office is good for your branding and marketing efforts, as well. From the latest iPhone to solar-powered home energy, consumers have high expectations of technology today and they expect that imaging centers are using state-of-the-art technology to support their clinicians so that doctors can better care for their community.  

If the life of even ONE patient could be saved through technology like cmTriage and cmAssist, it is worth its weight in gold.

Here’s how it adds up:

• When you can find more early-stage cancers, patient outcomes improve;
• When patient outcomes improve, so does the perception of your practice;
• When perception is positive, patients will trust the screening and treatment recommendations of your practice and its doctors;
• When patients trust a practice, they will refer their friends and family members. 

Again, at scale, promoting the value of AI to your patients and your community can have a tangible impact on your outcomes, your brand and your bottom line.

Learn more about how AI can benefit your radiology practice here: 

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AI triage software like cmTriage helps the radiologist focus on the most suspicious cases, streamlining the doctor’s worklist and improving workflow for the practice. AI-based CAD like cmAssist supports the radiologist by identifying, marking and scoring potential regions of interest in a mammogram, which helps to improve cancer detection and reduce false positives.

[1] https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.10092170