The Future of Medical Imaging

The ITN team recently attended the Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA)’s 45th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Anaheim, Calif., where nearly 1,000 members, vendors and presenters came together to learn and network. We learned from the three nationally renowned keynote speakers, more than 100 breakout sessions and from the new technology showcased in the exhibit hall by 160 different companies.

At the meeting, associate editor Jeff Zagoudis had the opportunity to interview AHRA President Jason Newmark, CRA, FAHRA, and CEO Ed Cronin. Newmark and Cronin highlighted the association’s accomplishments over the past year, and discussed how AHRA will help its members face the coming changes in healthcare.

Highlighting what is new, Newmark mentioned that regulatory affairs are a huge issue for AHRA, its members and all of the regulations that are coming down the pipeline. “We decided a few years ago that we need to be a little more active in that area, so we created the Regulatory Affairs committee, and they are charged initially with just monitoring what is happening, and develop position papers so our members would understand what was coming down and what they should be focusing on,” he explained. “But we found after we started to do that that we could probably have more input into the decision-making process, so we are now more active in advocating for outcomes rather than just monitoring and informing our members, so I think that will be something that we really will be focusing on in the future.”

The AHRA Education Foundation (EF) launched a new campaign at this year’s meeting. “We are calling it ‘Defining Our Future,’ and it’s going to focus on developing leadership skills for the next generation, developing education programs for our members so they continue to excel at what they do, a lot of research, and also expanding our advocacy programs,” said Newmark.

The association plans to continue to grow its membership, and according to Newmark, is going back to the grassroots. “We are having our members around the country host local meetings where we can get our members in that area to come together, and also invite nonmembers,” he stated.

You can watch Jeff’s entire interview with Newman and Cronin at http://bit.ly/2vI4kMc, in addition to other videos, including Personalized Breast Screening and Breast Density with Nancy Cappello, Ph.D., executive director and founder of Are You Dense Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy; Critical Issues in Radiology Administration featuring Angelic McDonald, MSRS, CRA, FAHRA, regional director of imaging, Baylor Scott & White Health and the president-elect of AHRA; and The Role of Analytics in Value-Based Healthcare with Woojin Kim, M.D., chief medical information officer, Nuance Communications. These videos, along with other show coverage, can be found at http://bit.ly/2vSq07Z.