Establishing a health outcomes and economics center in radiology: strategies and resources required.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the resources and strategies required to establish a health outcomes and economics center in radiology.


METHODS
Human and nonhuman resources required to perform sound outcomes and economics studies in radiology are reviewed.


RESULTS
Human resources needed include skilled medical and nonmedical staff. Nonhuman resources required are: (1). communication and information network; (2). education tools and training programs; (3). budgetary strategies; and (4). sources of income. Effective utilization of these resources allows the performance of robust operational and clinical research projects in decision analysis, cost-effectiveness, diagnostic performance (sensitivity, specificity, and ROC curves), and clinical analytical and experimental studies.


CONCLUSIONS
As new radiologic technology and techniques are introduced in medicine, society is increasingly demanding sound clinical studies that will determine the impact of radiologic studies on patient outcome. Health-care funding is scarce, and therefore third-party payers and hospitals are demanding more efficiency and productivity from radiologic service providers. To meet these challenges, radiology departments could establish health outcomes and economics centers to study the clinical effectiveness of imaging and its impact on patient outcome.
Medina
L Santiago
LS
Department of Radiology, Miami Children's Hospital, 3100 SW 62 Avenue, Miami, FL 33155, USA. smedina@post.harvard.edu
Altman
Nolan R
NR
D002017:Budgets; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011872:Radiology Department, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems