Jan. 30 – Feb. 1 | Dallas
The ACR-RBMA Practice Leadership Forum offers practical management strategies aimed at recalibrating your business operations for new health care models, improving profitability, and introducing a value-based mindset within your team.
In today’s world, technology enables radiologists to work from virtually anywhere. Yet, true connection and professional fulfillment often come from engaging with colleagues face-to-face. So what happens when that isn’t always possible? This keynote explores how to cultivate joy and fulfillment at work—whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid—by creating opportunities for authentic interaction. Dr. Whitfill will highlight strategies to maximize engagement, balance flexibility with connection, and leverage both in-person and virtual settings for fun, collaboration, and professional satisfaction. Attendees will leave with practical approaches to bring more energy, connection, and joy into their daily work.
Drs. Duszak and Rubin, co-chairs of the ACR's task force on consolidation in radiology, will discuss the impact of consolidation on radiology practices and health care organizations more broadly, highlight relevant market changes in the radiology workforce, and outline actions underway by the ACR to help radiologists address real and perceived loss of autonomy and agency.
After briefly reviewing the drivers of the workforce shortage, this session will focus on the role of leaders in solving recruitment and retainment issues in their practice/department. These include role modeling, addressing burnout and related wellness issues, examining causes of radiologist dissatisfaction, and if necessary, re-branding the practice to compete in the labor market.
In this session, we will discuss the updates, challenges and opportunities on Capitol Hill from the radiology business and radiologist perspective. We will also discuss the intimate association of these entities with RBMA and RADPAC and why these are important when advocating for radiologists and radiology practices/institutions.
This presentation will demonstrate RBMA's commitment to individual member success and to advancing the entire radiology business management profession through collaborative innovation, shared knowledge, and unified advocacy. We will highlight the work that our committees, our educational programs and our initiatives do to support our commitment to advancing the industry's future. From federal advocacy to local community forums, from emerging leader development to seasoned executive resources, RBMA provides the comprehensive support network that radiology business professionals need to thrive. Together, we're not just managing radiology businesses—we're shaping the future of healthcare delivery through excellence in radiology business management.
In the current healthcare landscape, most Radiologists do not realize why advocacy and involvement in payment determination processes are so important for their specialty. This presentation will provide context for the influential role the ACR plays with legislators and how its key involvement with the CPT and RUC processes significantly and positively impact the well-being of Radiologists and their practices.
Radiology faces significant pressure from increasing demand and workforce shortages, making AI an essential step forward. Discover what to expect from foundation models and agentic AI, and how to create a “Frontier Practice” to leverage these innovations.
Consolidation is reshaping the landscape of radiology, with practices of all types and sizes navigating its opportunities and challenges. In this panel, leaders from diverse practice settings will share firsthand experiences with consolidation - what has worked, what hasn’t, and how it has affected practice culture, operations, and patient care. Through moderated discussion, panelists will provide insights into the practical implications of consolidation and strategies radiology practices can consider as they evaluate their own futures.
Even as other radiology groups sold to physician practice management companies starting over a decade ago, and even with the most recent proliferation of closer alignments with hospitals, many radiology groups still want to remain as independent as possible. Ironically, groups are increasingly considering strategies for consolidating with other radiology groups as a way to maintain independence. Some consider forming a management services organization, but often they at least evaluate, if not move directly to, some type of merger transaction. Many legal considerations (e.g., tax impact) can impact what strategy is chosen. Economics and control have always been important, especially from a legal standpoint. Similarly, leadership (which is different from control) before, during and after the consolidation can make or break the deal. And how this is documented is critical. Indeed, leadership itself can be affected by the rationales for the consolidation and the ways control is structured. Ultimately, blending practice cultures and finding related synergies are often the key determinants of success, of course, assuming the chosen approach also addresses important legal and related concerns.
In today’s changing workforce landscape, radiology practices must adopt fresh approaches to attract and keep talent. This session brings together private practice and academic leaders to share strategies ranging from tailoring practice models to meet individual needs, to leveraging remote work opportunities, and to understanding what new graduates value most in their first jobs. We will also explore how building a culture of flexibility can drive engagement, satisfaction, and long-term stability.
Drs. Duszak and Rubin, co-chairs of the ACR's task force on consolidation in radiology, follow up on material presented in their plenary session, engaging the audience in facilitated discussion during this breakout.
This breakout session builds on the consolidation plenary and panel by shifting from presentation to conversation. Through guided discussion, participants will have the opportunity to share their own experiences, explore different practice models, and consider how the insights from earlier sessions apply to their organizations. The focus will be on moving from understanding consolidation to identifying actionable strategies that can inform decision-making at the group level.
As an interactive follow-up to the presentation on “From Strategy to Structure: Tackling Legal and Organization Hurdles in Consolidation,” this breakout will offer the participants a chance to discuss real-world situations they’re encountering and query the presenters (as well as other participants) about legal and organizational issues and solutions and, more generally, about where the consolidation trend is going. Questions that many are asking include, “Besides being a good radiology group, are we doing everything we can to better compete? Can some type of consolidation help?” A corollary: “What is everyone else doing?” And “What works legally?” This session will be an open forum to exchange thoughts on these sorts of questions and explore the pros and cons, opportunities and challenges, of consolidation.
Building on themes from the role of leadership in the workforce crisis plenary session, this interactive breakout invites radiologists and practice leaders to share their own experiences, challenges, and solutions related to workforce shortages. Participants will collaborate in small groups to examine leadership strategies that improve recruitment, enhance retention, create efficiencies and address burnout. The session emphasizes practical, real-world approaches that can be adapted and tested within participants’ own practices or departments.
Teleradiology has reduced the opportunity for in person collaboration between radiologists and other clinicians. That type of physical separation can lead to a loss of fun at work. Finding ways to authentically support in person collaboration is a challenge. This breakout will be a combination of sourcing what has worked for audience members at other organizations as well as brainstorming on ideas that can be brought back to your institution for testing.
In this breakout session, we will collectively discuss practice and institutional challenges when it comes to the current and future state of radiology. We will also discuss potential strategies to navigate the future healthcare landscape.
Radiology practices are increasingly faced with doing more with less as the workforce-workload mismatch increases. This session will discuss challenges and opportunities for radiology AI, including implementation strategies, governance, cost considerations, change management, proving ROI, and the importance of AI literacy.
We will compare what we have done and are doing right now to the new experiments and tactics we have adopted in the interval. The most likely areas of experimentation and tactical change include: workforce issues and consolidation of coverage (eliminating certain beeper call duties, changing contracts with facilities regarding what is required, and reworking what we do, where we do it, and when we are willing to do so), retention strategies (increasing options, rapidly evolving job descriptions and coverage models, culture building), artificial intelligence moonshot to keep radiologists in control and avoid creeping bureaucracy and inefficiency of hospital driven strategies and hodge podge solutions, and creative use of NSA tools and IDR feedback coupled with hospital relationships and strategic messaging to alter payer relationships and create leverage in commercial payer negotiations. A hyper fresh take on managing in a time of rapid change. Key lesson to learn: Progressive thought is required to just stay afloat, much less position ourselves for success in an environment that is highly unstable and unlikely to look much like the past.
This highly focused presentation will help participants issue spot and plan for what could be the “top ten” legal-related issues they may face over the next 12 months. Some of these may be so-called “known unknowns” that radiology groups know about, or should know about, but don’t fully understand. Others may be issues that radiology groups are increasingly encountering in today’s competitive market for radiology services and radiologists. And as a bonus at the end, the presentation will take a step beyond the basics of exclusive contracting and briefly examine the “hottest” issues facing radiology groups in their contracts with hospitals, drawing on numerous groups’ most recent experiences with an eye on the future.
The meeting co-chairs will summarize key themes, sentiments, and lessons learned from the meeting, focusing on points that attendees can take home to their practices.
