Point of View: Elliot Silverman, Director of Radiology
Elliot Silverman is a Radiology Director and Healthcare Consultant. With over 40 years of experience, he has held several roles at mid-sized and large hospitals and imaging centers, focusing on administrative leadership and clinical management. He talked to our team about Reveal 35C and how it can impact imaging departments.
Tell me a little bit about you.
Elliot Silverman: I’ve been in radiology since 1972. I started as an X-ray technologist at Beth Israel Hospital and quickly worked my way up to CT tech supervisor. I left Beth Israel as the radiology manager, overseeing 203 people. I moved to South Florida in 1984, where I held my first position as a radiology director at Saint Francis Hospital. Then I started through a transition into other radiology director positions both in hospitals and imaging centers. I did some sales and some marketing as it relates to radiology. Now, more recently, I decided to do consulting work.
Why do you see Reveal 35C as a good solution for the Radiology field?
Elliot Silverman: Number one, my goal and objective is always patient care. Despite titles or whatever you do in your career, we get into healthcare because of patient care. And I think the detector has shown a tremendous improvement for patient care as it relates to chest imaging or other areas that it can enhance. My point of view is that of an X-ray technologist, and also that of an administrator, I look at Reveal 35C very practically focusing on what it could do for my patients, physicians and staff.
From your perspective, how do you see that Reveal 35C can improve patient care?
Elliot Silverman: Well, there’s a lot of advantages to this with regards to chest imaging. You can see ribs, you can see soft tissue, you can see bone. You can extract many of those anatomical features. And, most importantly, without causing additional ionizing radiation. It’s really an asset to the radiologist so that they can diagnose and present treatments for the clinicians.
One could argue that there are better modalities, that X-ray is commoditized, and if the image is not good you can simply test the patient again using a more advanced modality. Is this true? Why does it matter to try to find other types of solutions?
Elliot Silverman: It does happen, but it doesn’t mean that X-ray should be overlooked. It’s the most used imaging modality, with very acceptable radiation levels. Some procedures require more radiation, CT for example. With the Reveal 35C, it’s the same ionizing radiation of a regular X-ray. That’s a fact. Is CT the choice of imaging? Yes, it is, and it should be used when necessary. Reveal 35C, however, adds another tool to the equation. Maybe the patient doesn’t have to go for a CT because some patients may be not be physically or mentally suitable to go into the gantry, or go into the imaging room with a lot of stress and anxiety. If you have an imaging solution that is good, not as good as a CT but much better than a regular DR… that you can take to the patient, as simple as just putting a detector under the patient… It’s a lot easier for both the technologist and the patient. From an imaging director perspective, there are many administrative benefits as well. For example: there’s so much CT volume going on. A solution like Reveal 35C could free up some of the volumes for CT and allow the throughput for patient care a lot easier for many areas, such as emergency room imaging, in-house patient imaging. You can free up the CT scans. A lot of facilities don’t have the luxury of having one or two CTs. Often the patient load is backed up because there’s too much imaging. If you can use this detector to reduce the workflow in CT or MRI. There are other perspectives too. In some cases, you can even discharge that patient quicker, as the patient will not have to be in the hospital waiting until he or she can get a CT or MRI. Because of the imaging that you provide with the detector, you’re saving a significant amount of money for the hospital. You know, nobody wants to stay in the hospital longer than they need to, and this may expedite the discharge process for patients and doctors.
Why is it important to offer this type of solution in an emergency room, for example, or in mobile applications?
Elliot Silverman: Dual energy imaging has many clinical benefits, research has already shown this. There are studies that show how good it is to detect a number of conditions, especially in the chest region. The problem is that in the past it could not be used on mobile systems. If you can use it on mobile systems, then it’s a breakthrough. Think about all the time you can save. Just compare the time to go through a chest X-ray and a CT scan. Because of volumes, patients often wait in the emergency room for 3, 4, 5, 6 hours before they get to the CT scan. If the clinician can diagnose that patient with a chest plate, the detector, then you’re able to diagnose, treat and discharge the patient a lot faster.