AU Health partners with Inflo Health to elevate the radiology follow-up process to optimize the patient experience
CONTACT: Lisa Kaylor, AU Health, 706-755-3160, lkaylor@augusta.edu; Alicia Laszewski, Inflo Health, 954-683-7189, alicia@yourbrandethos.com
AUGUSTA, Ga. (June 13, 2023) – Augusta University Health(AU Health), a comprehensive primary, specialty, and subspeciality healthcare network based in Augusta, Georgia, that serves as the primary teaching affiliate for the Medical College of Georgia, announced today that they are partnering with Inflo Health, a radiology follow-up solution powered by advanced AI and natural language understanding (NLU). Augusta University Health will leverage Inflo Health’s innovative solution to automate the radiology follow-up process for hundreds of thousands of their radiology patients per year.
According to an American College of Radiology study, 60% of radiology imaging follow-ups never get completed. Inflo Health estimates that their platform allows their customers the ability to recapture at least 80% of these missed follow-ups.
“The radiology follow-up process can be challenging and time intensive, with life-changing consequences,” added John Crossgrove, Director of Radiology Services at AU Health. “Inflo Health is a smart and powerful technology that stood out to us during our search for a partner in this area for a multitude of reasons. The ability to automate and close the communication loop with 100% of our providers and patients in this area, across all modalities, without adding additional staff is transformational in supporting our world-class patient care mission and objectives.”
Inflo Health will support all areas within AU Health’s radiology program, including support to close any gaps within the incidental findings program. According to the ACR, incidental findings are defined as “an incidentally discovered mass or lesion, detected by CT, MRI, or other imaging modality performed for an unrelated reason.” Many different forms of cancers are discovered incidentally, and lifesaving therapies can be prescribed much earlier in the tumor development, leading to better patient outcomes.
Dr. Annette Johnson, AU Health’s Chair of Radiology and Imaging commented, “Complexity within health systems contributes to the reality that communication breakdowns are responsible for the majority of safety events in health care environments. Test results management is a particularly substantial challenge for physicians and other providers, despite their diligence and focused efforts at information management. Breakdowns in communication of test results occur across the spectrum of clinical settings and can result in delayed diagnoses and harm to patients. Our vision in AU Health Radiology is ‘Better imaging for better health.’ By partnering with Inflo Health, we can further this vision by creating automated processes for identification and tracking of imaging findings that require follow-up—so that we can have a failsafe system for providing timely and potentially life-saving testing and treatment to further ensure the delivery of the very best care for our patients. We are thrilled to have selected Inflo Health as our partner on this journey.”
Angela Adams, CEO of Inflo Health, said, “A recent article published by the American College of Radiology (ACR) cited that over 65% of Emergency Physicians and Radiologists report that their health systems do not have a tracking mechanism for incidental findings today. This is a staggering statistic given the importance of timely identification and communication for healthy patient outcomes. Augusta University Health is an innovative health system, and we are proud to partner with them on this mission-critical enhancement to their radiology team and their patients.”
Inflo Health was founded by a revolutionary radiologist, frustrated by an overworked and inefficient healthcare system, who wanted to improve the patient outcomes. As a result, a team of clinical and technical experts came together to develop large language models and NLU to read and understand radiology reports with the goal of automating identification of which patients have recommendations for additional imaging. Inflo Health then automates communication to the care team and to the patients to help ensure the follow-ups are ordered and scheduled. The Inflo Health platform streamlines the management of radiology follow-up recommendations across all imaging modalities.
About Inflo Health: We harness the power of advanced AI, large language models, and NLU to turn radiology follow-up into a stress-free process. Our proven, automated solution streamlines the management of follow-up recommendations across all imaging modalities, so you can ensure no patient falls through the care gap. With our easy-to-use, integrated platform, your team can focus on delivering top-quality patient care, while also mitigating risk, and maximizing staff efficiency.
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AU Health is Georgia’s only public academic health center, where world-class clinicians are bringing the medicine of tomorrow to patient care today. As the primary teaching affiliate of the Medical College of Georgia, AU Health provides the most comprehensive routine-to-complex care at AU Medical Center, which houses the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, as well as Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Georgia Cancer Center, historic Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals, Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, and more than 100 primary and specialty care clinics across the state.
