Innovate, Collaborate, Educate: Meet RP’s Clinical Value Team
Dr. Krishna Nallamshetty
In December 2020, Dr. Krishna Nallamshetty transitioned into his role as Associate Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Value for Radiology Partners (RP), evolving the practice’s Clinical Value Team.
Their work focuses on providing clinical value across RP’s local practices by leveraging scale and tapping into the clinical expertise available throughout the RP network. Recently, we met with Dr. Nallamshetty to discuss the vision for the team and its efforts so far.
What is the purpose of the Clinical Value Team?
The mission of the Clinical Value Team is to elevate patient care and enhance value through innovation, collaboration and education. Many practices within the RP network have improved their operational processes, advanced their clinical technology and more. Because of that, they provide excellent radiology care in their communities. Through the RP Clinical Value Team and our collaborative efforts with local practices, we have an opportunity to share the education, tools and processes that those radiology practices have with our entire national practice. Not all practices have access to the same resources, so our team can identify the best-in-class clinical programs and replicate those across the country—essentially elevating the level of care for every patient who receives care through RP providers.
How did the Clinical Value Team evolve when you took on the ACMO role?
First, we identified an expert in each of eight radiology subspecialties – body, cardiothoracic, interventional, musculoskeletal, neuro, nuclear medicine, pediatric, and women’s imaging – to guide our clinical programs. These eight National Subspecialty Leads (NSLs) are practicing radiologists from various areas across the country, so they are able consider a radiologist’s perspective in differing environments. Each NSL is supported by an advisory board made up of five additional physicians in their subspecialty, which creates a 48-physician think tank to discuss ideas and provide feedback.
All of this to say, our Clinical Value Team is made up of these NSLs, advisory board members and the healthcare professionals who support those physician leaders. We began our efforts with whiteboard sessions to identify what we think provides value, and we realized that value is different for each stakeholder, whether it’s patients, providers, clients or local practices. We decided to first focus on value from the perspective of patients and providers, and who better to think about this than practicing radiologists? We are already seeing the fruits of that level of physician input.
Can you share examples of how the Clinical Value Team’s mission and its structure allow the team to influence clinical value at scale?
Absolutely. For example, prostate MRI is a highly specialized study, and we can leverage the expertise of Dr. Thomas Farquhar, the NSL for Body Imaging, and his Advisory Board, to produce the necessary training materials to guide radiologists and technologists in other local practices in that specialized imaging need. Another example is in cardiothoracic imaging, specifically in imaging the heart with CT and MRI. With our NSL for Cardiothoracic Imaging, Dr. Daniel Brunengraber, we are working to gather a national group of expertly trained radiologists who can provide this state-of-the-art imaging and interpretations via a national teleradiology platform.
Finally, by bringing thought leaders in every specialty together, we are able to focus on clinical innovation like never before. Our scale allows us to invest in technology such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing to provide our radiologists with all the state-of-the-art tools to make sure our patients receive the absolute best level of care.
These are just a few examples of topics the team is working on right now. There are many, many more topics and initiatives in our queue. We are just getting started.
How does the team contribute to RP’s mission to transform radiology?
By tapping into the resources of experts we already have, we can identify best practices, share tools and create efficiencies to offer access to high-quality radiology services in all our communities. I’m excited about the cross collaboration, and with more than 2,700 radiologists working together like this, I believe we are making traction on our mission to transform radiology.
Learn more about Dr. Krishna Nallamshetty, the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Value, on our blog, and follow him on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @knallamMD. Radiology Partners is the largest physician-led and physician-owned radiology practice in the U.S. For the latest news from RP, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and the blog.
