For institutions that consider joining or returning to the program, repeat participation reinforces that quality improvement is not a one-time initiative but an ongoing process.
For many radiology teams, participation in the ACR Learning Network’s ImPower Program is not a one-time experience but a starting point for ongoing transformation. Across institutions, organizations that return to the program describe a common theme: each engagement builds not only better project outcomes, but stronger teams, more efficient processes and a deeper culture of continuous improvement.
Participants from Penn Medicine, Duly Health and Care and the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) offer a window into why teams keep coming back and how repeat participation amplifies impact.
For Penn Medicine, returning to ImPower meant applying lessons from a well-established collaborative to a more complex and evolving challenge. After participating in the Mammography Positioning collaborative, the team joined the inaugural Mammography Health Equity cohort.
That progression proved critical.
“Having that foundation in quality improvement made it much easier to approach a broader, more complex issue like health equity,” says Debra Miller, radiology quality manager and radiology supervisor at Penn Medicine Services West. Without that initial structure, she notes, tackling a newer, less-defined problem would have been far more difficult.
Anne King, DO, assistant professor of clinical radiology at Penn Medicine, echoes that distinction. While mammography positioning offered clear metrics and established benchmarks, health equity required teams to define both the problem and the path forward. “It’s a much larger scope … more difficult to measure and approach,” she says, emphasizing the importance of structured guidance in navigating that ambiguity.
That guidance helped Penn move beyond assumptions and examine real-world barriers. By mapping the patient journey step by step, the team uncovered gaps they hadn’t previously recognized, such as language barriers in patient communications and unclear processes for identifying underserved populations.
The result was not just a single intervention, but a sustained, evolving effort. Even after completing the collaborative, the team continues to meet regularly, expand initiatives across sites and incorporate new tools like analytics platforms to improve measurement and scalability.
At Duly Health and Care, repeat participation enabled a different kind of growth: scaling quality improvement across multiple teams and locations.
After engaging in several collaboratives, including Lung Cancer Screening and Prostate MR Image Quality, the organization brought two teams through the Mammography Positioning collaborative at the same time. This approach allowed them to compare workflows across sites and broaden participation among technologists.
“We were able to evaluate differences between locations and ensure alignment on standards,” says Melinda Willis, MPH, SSBBP, quality manager at Duly Health and Care. Regular cross-team discussions helped unify definitions of quality and reduce variation in interpretation.
Running parallel projects also highlighted a key challenge in scaling: sustainability. While the team initially planned to expand manual image review across additional sites, the time-intensive nature of that work led them to adopt automated tools for ongoing monitoring.
That evolution reflects a broader lesson from repeat participation: improvement is not static. Each project builds new capabilities but also reveals new constraints and new opportunities.
Willis emphasizes that leadership engagement and communication are essential, particularly when managing multiple teams or collaboratives. “Sharing methods, strategies and successes helps build skill sets across the organization and keeps momentum going,” she says. “Our success in large part is due to the leaders and technologists who participated in the collaboratives.”
It’s not just about the projects; it’s about building your team. Each time we participate, our people become more effective leaders and collaborators.
For URMC, returning to ImPower has become a strategic priority. The organization has participated in multiple collaboratives and now incorporates the Learning Network into its routine quality improvement infrastructure.
“The structure and accountability are incredibly valuable. It keeps teams moving forward and ensures projects are completed,” says Erin Panter, imaging sciences quality specialist II at URMC.
That accountability is a recurring theme. Ben Wandtke, MD, MS, MMM, vice chair of quality and safety at URMC and vice chair for the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety, notes that internally managed projects are more likely to stall or exceed timelines, while those conducted through the Learning Network are completed more reliably and efficiently.
“Having that external structure — presenting regularly, staying on track — drives success,” he says.
The impact is measurable. Through its first Learning Network project, URMC increased lung cancer screening rates from approximately 20% to 50% of eligible patients within nine months, with continued growth to about 60% over time, roughly triple the national average.
But beyond metrics, the organization highlights cultural transformation. Participation has strengthened cross-departmental relationships, increased leadership engagement and built internal expertise in quality improvement.
“It’s not just about the projects; it’s about building your team,” Wandtke says. “Each time we participate, our people become more effective leaders and collaborators.”
Mary Jo Evans, administrator of imaging population health programs at URMC, adds that the program also shifts individual perspectives: “It’s changed how I look at my work and how my actions affect others across the system.”
Across all three organizations, several themes emerge: Structure enables success, accountability drives momentum, collaboration is essential and learning compounds over time.
Perhaps most importantly, repeat participation reinforces a mindset: that quality improvement is not a one-time initiative but an ongoing process.
As Penn Medicine’s team demonstrated, even after a project ends, the work continues — expanding, adapting and improving. At Duly, lessons evolve into scalable systems. And at URMC, participation has become embedded in the organization’s strategy.
For institutions considering joining or returning to the ImPower Program, the message is clear: the value isn’t just in what you accomplish during a single collaborative, but in what you build over time.
A stronger team. A more effective process. And ultimately, better outcomes for patients.
By Raina Keefer, contributing writer, ACR Press
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