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FRS Membership Dues |
Please contact the American College of Radiology Membership Services at (800) 347-7748 to pay your 2024 Florida Radiological Society membership dues. |
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Meet Your 2023 - 2024 FRS Executive Committee |
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President
Laura Vallow, MD |
President Elect
Juan Batlle, MD, FACR |
Treasurer
Andrew Bowman, MD, PhD |
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Secretary
Edem Chen, MD |
Past President
Chintan Desai, MD, FACR |
Radiation Oncology, Chair
Jennifer Peterson, MD |
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Letter from the Editor |
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Dear Members of the FRS,
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your secretary for 2023-24. It has been an enormous privilege to edit our monthly e-brief. I hope the ChatGPT series demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of AI. The lessons learned from this series parallel those of raising children. It's crucial to ask informed questions to elicit coherent and appropriate responses. As I conclude my term, my last editorial will be a fictional Call to Action based on a conglomeration of experiences in radiology. I hope this resonates with those at all stages of their practice careers. Always try to be the hero. |
A Call to Action in A Private Practice
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Dear Partners,
It is evident that we have painted ourselves into a very tight corner. We have a choice:
- To continue as we are and hope for a different outcome, or
- To choose differently and work towards an equitable, collaborative, sustainable solution for ALL.
It is easy to fall; it is harder to get up. Parsing words at this moment is difficult, so I will be straightforward.
- There is an immediate solution, planned with foresight into the trajectory of our decisions.
- We have four or fewer years to reverse course.
- We must internalize the differences between private, employed, and academic radiology practices.
- Everyone must function as a private practice radiologist according to their experience and career stage.
- We must weather-proof ourselves against:
- Believing it will be easy to get what we deserve.
- The urge to split into factions when faced with challenges.
- Scapegoating problems on a single issue or person.
- The hospital President’s decisive actions indicating a well-considered strategy, likely with consensus from all Presidents.
- We need to return to fundamentals.
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Implementation Will Require:
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- Engaged leaders who are present and active in all arenas.
- Plans based on the best data, with goals and deadlines to ensure collaborative progress.
- A clear demonstration of our commitment to change and growth to the Administration.
- Identifying and remedying inefficiencies quickly to avoid repetition.
- Treating people as we would like to be treated.
- Aligning our actions with the hospital’s expectations, acknowledging our track record in radiology.
- Transparency within our group.
- Avoiding providing the administration with the means to replace us faster than they already can.
Make no mistake, some members are working tirelessly to secure our families’ futures. Leaders should always be accountable for their time, money, and authority, ensuring they do not enrich themselves at the expense of others. Therefore, term limits for Board of Directors positions will be recommended to ensure accountability, sustainability, and the best outcomes.
If everything mentioned above is obvious, then why are we in the unfortunate position of righting this ship again? We reap what we sow, so let us plant a better future. We can do this; we must do it together.
Your Concerned Partner,
PS: Every partner should expect guaranteed planned vacations every year for their families.
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Edem Chen, MD
Secretary, FRS |
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FRS President's Message |
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Dear FRS/FRBMA Colleagues,
As my term as President of the Florida Radiological Society draws to a close, I reflect on the journey over the last 4 years serving on the FRS Executive Team. Serving our Society has been a tremendous honor and a privilege that I will always cherish. I am greatly appreciative of all of those who have served before and have freely shared their experience and am amazed by the dedication and talent of those to follow.
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If you have not already, I urge you to continue support of the FRS with renewal of your FRS/ACR membership. Our society continues to advocate for policies that shape the future of radiology related professions, ensuring the voice of our members is heard at state and national levels.
I look forward to seeing you all later this month at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Florida Radiological Society and Florida Radiology Business Management Association. Set to take place on July 19-21 at The Ritz-Carlton, Grande Lakes, Orlando Florida, this promises to be a dynamic and enriching experience for all who attend.
To conclude, I want to express my appreciation to our members and staff for their dedication and hard work throughout the year. I look forward to the future of our society and continued friendships and engagement with you all. |
Laura Vallow, MD
President, Florida Radiological Society Vallow.laura@mayo.edu |
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FRBMA President's Message |
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Annual Meeting 2024
July 19th-21, 2024 marks the annual FRS/FRBMA conference at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida. This year’s meeting is entitled “Forging Ahead into the Brave New World of Radiology”.
As I reflect on the time that has passed since last year’s meeting, we truly are forging into new worlds within our radiology practices. Some of the areas that we have seen highlighted include use of AI functionality, new trends in hospital PSA negotiations, hiring challenges and cybersecurity advancements. |
AI inclusion is being coupled with diagnostic imaging to aid in post processing, along with patient engagement enhancements that promise intuitive follow up, predictive scheduling and wait list management. We’ve already seen the use of AI for predictive impressions in radiologist voice recognition platforms and will soon see that further developed to save the interpreting physician even greater time in the formatting of findings and comparative reporting. Our brave new world of radiology may one day see AI providing greater normalization and standardization in procedure code management between disparate systems and series naming conventions for greater efficiencies in hanging protocols and back-end administrative management of worklists and other radiology information systems tasks.
As our reimbursements continue to decline, we are having to brave new technologies to streamline and aide in enhancing productivity for our technologists as well. We wrote earlier this year about the potential for remote scanning in MRI and CT. That ship is sailing now with multiple hospital systems and groups embracing their newfound ability to counter tech staffing shortages by actively covering scanners remotely and, in many cases, performing more than one study at a time or extending hours with home-based technologists. Kiosk check-ins and automated pre-registration are reducing our reliance on high levels of front office staffing and reducing wait times within our facilities. Our patients are becoming accustomed to these levels of efficiency and immediate access to their records and results, providing them with greater confidence in managing their health and wellness.
Cybersecurity is paramount in today’s health care industry with many groups having to increase their budgets beyond their wildest imaginations to assist in the prevention and mitigation of these events. Requirements for controls via MFA (multi factor authentication), penetration testing, and correction are fostering the development of new platforms and monitoring systems.
Many of these topics will be touched on during our time together in July, along with the latest updates from our legislative representatives for the upcoming elections. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to listen to the experts, network with peers and help gather ideas for your own strategic planning and future roadmaps.
Hope to see you all there!
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Lisa Adams, CEO, MBA
President, FRBMA |
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Legislative Update |
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The Governor has received the $116.5 billion budget for fiscal 2024-25 and applied his veto pen. He vetoed a total of $949.6 million dollars from the budget that passed. There is $17 billion dollars held in budget surplus, which is held in the budget stabilization fund.
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The last of the bills have been acted upon completing the approval process for bills sent to him by lawmakers this session. Many bills including the budget go into effect July 1. Of the 325 bills passed this session, the Governor vetoed 14 which is the most he has vetoed since taking office, 185 of those bills take effect July 1st.
Campaign season is well underway and I am working on making new friends in the legislative arena. Many of our friends have been termed out so your contribution to the FRS PAC is more important than ever.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the summer conference in Orlando.
Best, |
Alison Dudley, FRS Lobbyist
AlisonDudley@dudleyandassociates.com |
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2024 Annual Meeting of the
FRS & FRBMA |
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Please join the Florida Radiological Society and the Florida Radiology Business Management Association for the 2024 Annual Meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes, July 19-21, 2024. The meeting will focus on “Forging Ahead into the Brave New World of Radiology” and will feature lectures by faculty who are leaders in the practice of radiology. We look forward to seeing you in July. |
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Attend a sample of the Learning to Lead Bootcamp at the 2024 FRS Chapter Meeting. Check out the spring RLI Learning to
Lead Bootcamp at www.acr.org/LearningToLead for additional training
and tools to address early leadership challenges. |
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Job Posting Opportunities |
Florida Radiological Society is pleased to introduce the opportunity for interested parties to advertise for potential jobs in our monthly FRS Ebrief bulletin.
Advertisement pricing is as follows:
Ebrief Job Posting pricing:
- 3 months ($100 monthly)
- 6 months ($90 monthly)
- 12 months ($80 monthly)
Please contact Lorraine Roger, our Society Administrator for further information on how to advertise in our monthly publication.
Phone: (813) 806-1070
Fax: (813) 806-1071
Email: lroger@flrad.org
We feel that this will provide a valuable service to both our members and our Florida community of Radiology. |
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Become A PAC Member Today |
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Attention FRBMA Members! Please support the cause. We encourage you to be PAC members and supporters; you do not have to belong to the FRS. Donations can be made online through our PAC website www.FLRADPAC.org. Thank you for your donation.
It is critical that we support both our Florida PAC and RADPAC in order to bolster our voice in Tallahassee and Washington, respectively. Please join FRS lobbyist Alison Dudley in her special appeal for all Florida radiologists to become Florida PAC members. If you would like to help FRS defend radiology against untoward legislation and introduce bills that have a positive impact on our practices, we need your financial support to re-elect our friends in the state House and Senate. The FRS can also show you simplified ways on how to sign up your radiology group. Contact Lorraine Roger or contact Alison Dudley for more information. |
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Telephone (813) 806-1070 Fax (813) 806-1071
5620 W. Sligh Avenue Tampa, Florida 33634 |
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The E-Brief is an exclusive member benefit of Florida Radiological Society, delivering monthly member, chapter and industry news. Please do not reply to this automatic e-mail. For comments or questions about the E-Brief, please contact lroger@flrad.org. |
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