PRINCETON, MARCH 7, 2022

A collaboration between a leading outpatient imaging practice and a radiology IT innovator is expanding after its pilot program demonstrated positive impacts for patients in central and northern New Jersey.

By equipping a professional care coordinator with an automated navigation platform from Within Health, Princeton Radiology is boosting patient compliance with follow-up imaging after radiologists identify possible risks of cancer or other conditions that have better outcomes with early diagnosis.

The RadNav platform from Within Health empowers imaging providers to improve patient retention by leveraging AI/ML, behavioral science, and intelligent workflows. While the solution supports a fully automated model for recommendation discovery and patient communication without increasing administrative overhead, the user-friendly front-end also creates powerful efficiencies for staff responsible for engaging directly with patients.

Combining the RadNav platform with patient-communication content and workflow processes that Princeton Radiology designed to support the care coordinator, the initiative began with a focus on patients recommended for routine breast MRI in addition to annual mammograms, due to elevated breast cancer risk factors or other clinically relevant concerns.

After early successes with a three-month pilot test, Princeton Radiology has expanded the program. It now includes radiologist reports that recommend breast ultrasound for patients who benefit from additional monitoring for early signs of breast cancer, or chest CT scans for patients at risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, or other conditions affecting the thoracic anatomy.

“RadNav is designed to communicate with patients automatically about the studies they need, through text messages or emails,” said Adam Kirell, CEO of Within Health. “Often, that’s all it takes for the recipients to promptly schedule their exams.”

However, Jonathan Lebowitz, M.D., President of Princeton Radiology, noted that for a variety of reasons—some technology-related and others very human—patients sometimes miss or overlook electronic messages from healthcare providers, or underestimate their importance.

“That’s where the clinical knowledge and interpersonal communication skills of our Patient Care Coordinator come in,” Dr. Lebowitz said. “Princeton Radiology’s emphasis on the human side of medicine has truly synergized with the ability of RadNav to automatically identify patients at risk of missing care. This is a new initiative, but we have already seen scores of patients schedule appointments after our Care Coordinator calls and explains why the follow-up exams are necessary.”

While Princeton Radiology continues to work on gathering a base of historical data that will allow a full statistical analysis of the new program’s success, the early directional indicators are promising.

“We can already see that, by the end of the year, this initiative will have positively impacted hundreds if not thousands of patients who, without this proactive outreach, would be in jeopardy of delaying or missing important diagnostic care,” Dr. Lebowitz said. “The appreciation of the patients who have already benefitted, not to mention their referring physicians—has been gratifying to see.”

On the referring physician side, the staff of one noted breast surgery practice in the region told Princeton Radiology that they saw early signs of the program’s effects. According to Princeton Radiology’s care coordinator, office staff at the breast surgery practice noticed a spike in prescription requests for recommended follow-up imaging studies, and expressed appreciation for the support in communicating with their patients. This patient base includes breast cancer survivors who need regular monitoring to ensure that any recurrence is found as early as possible.