In an exclusive roundtable interview with DOTmed, outgoing AHRA president Penny M. Olivi, president-elect Debra A. Lopez and executive director Edward J. Cronin talk about new offerings at AHRA meetings, current issues in imaging management and imaging trends that are gaining a foothold in the industry.


Goals of the association and educational offerings

Cronin: The first goal is knowledge, not only to present knowledge but helping to develop knowledge within the field of imaging management; the second is networking and the third is professional development. The annual meeting addresses all three of those in one place.
Lopez: Specific to professional development, a few years ago the organization realized that the current management folks were getting older and we were concerned that some of the ranks that will be filling in behind us may not be as prepared for the future, so we developed something called the Leadership Institute.

Cronin: We've had four sessions so far and almost 500 people have taken the program, which teaches basic imaging management skills.

Olivi: We have 50 to 75 people taking the course at every meeting. It has become a very popular program...more and more of us are responsible for registration because of our outpatient centers; we're responsible for reimbursement and we're responsible for insurance companies as one of our customers. There was a time when these things were taken care of for us, but now it's our [responsibility]. We have expanded our educational offerings to cover all of that.

Vendor partnership and participation -- a must

Cronin: The companies that are here have a lot of expertise and we recognize that they can help our members do a better job. If we can act as an intermediary and bring them in to teach our members in a noncommercial way -- and that is always emphasized -- we can get better presentations. Companies that have great marketing expertise, for instance, can offer a lot to our members.

Olivi: There is also an MRI company that comes in and teaches MRI safety, which has been very successful.

Cronin: AHRA leadership surveyed partnering vendors at the outset of the Leadership Institute to gauge their perception of our membership. The general response was that members might benefit by having more business management skills. I think most of our members came up from a clinical background and now they are in positions where they have capital budgets and they have to do financial analyses. The companies that are selling expensive pieces of equipment -- these are the arguments that they're making and they would like their customers to have a good understanding of these things.

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