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Imaging e-Ordering Coalition Formed to Promote Evidence-based
Solutions for Ordering Appropriate Diagnostic Tests
Healthcare Leaders Promote HIT enabled Decision Support Tools to Assure
Medically Appropriate Imaging Tests for All Patients: The Right Test, at The Right
Time
WASHINGTON, D.C. — June 16, 2009 — An alliance of leading healthcare providers,
technology companies and diagnostic imaging organizations have joined forces to form the
Imaging e-Ordering Coalition (The Coalition). This national initiative will promote Health
Information Technology (HIT) enabled decision-support (e-Ordering) as a solution to assure that
all patients receive the most medically appropriate diagnostic imaging test for their specific
condition. Members of the Coalition are devoting their energies to help educate policy makers
and healthcare providers about the patient-centered efficiencies of e-Ordering, as well as
recommending to lawmakers that the efforts to build incentives for prescribing medications
electronically (e-Prescribing) should be broadened to include diagnostic imaging e-Ordering
solutions.
“As the healthcare industry, federal government and various regulatory bodies evaluate strategies
to contain the rising cost of healthcare, e-Ordering is increasingly recognized as a cost-effective
and data-driven approach to assure clinical best practices are applied to all ordering decisions,”
said Bibb Allen, M.D., of the American College of Radiology, and founding member of the
Imaging e-Ordering Coalition. “Expanding on the e-Prescribing model, e-Ordering will do for
diagnostic imaging what e-Prescribing has done for the drug prescription process - simplify the
way physicians’ decisions for patient care are verified as medically appropriate and safe without
compromising the physician-patient relationship.”
There are a variety of active legislative and regulatory proposals that attempt to address the
utilization of imaging services for publicly subsidized programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
The Coalition is focused on the following components and has achieved measured progress
within each.

Promote existing HIT legislative concepts to inform policy makers on the value of eOrdering to enable the appropriate use of imaging.

Ask lawmakers to include e-Ordering in the development of healthcare system efficiency
incentives.

Act as a resource for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on its
Medicare Imaging Demonstration Project established by Congress in Section 135(b) of
the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA).

Work with policy makers to have the Coalition’s e-Ordering proposal for CMS scored to
validate long-term value and savings for the healthcare industry.

Work with stakeholders to establish standards to accelerate e-Ordering as a meaningful
and valuable application with EHRs.
According to the Coalition, e-Ordering prevents many of the potential issues associated with
radiology benefit managers (RBMs), which are organizations employed by some healthcare
insurers to manage utilization and costs associated with high-tech diagnostic exams. Concerns
with the RBM model, include regulatory oversight and a manually burdensome “prior
authorization” system whereby physicians must receive approval before ordering an imaging
service. Under prior authorization, patients are often denied the imaging studies their physicians
believe are warranted, are steered towards lower-precision tests that may not provide needed
clinical information, or are forced to wait days or weeks to receive vital imaging services. eOrdering, on the other hand, provides physicians real-time, electronic access to pre-exam, case-
by-case decisions that are linked to published, evidenced-based clinical studies and are tailored
to a patient’s specific circumstances.
“The growing emphasis at all levels of the federal government to encourage adoption of HIT
presents an opportunity for the Coalition to elevate e-Ordering as a much more provider-friendly,
patient-centered alternative to the radiology benefit managers (RBM) model,” said Liz Quam,
Director, Center for Diagnostic Imaging Institute, and founding member of the Imaging eOrdering Coalition. “As a provider of diagnostic imaging services in nine states, my company
has seen the inconsistencies in insurers’ utilization efforts. None of those efforts are without
hassle for the healthcare providers striving to offer patient-centered care. Using an electronic
decision support tool offers regulators and insurers the assurance that the patient is receiving
appropriate care without adding unnecessary time or administrative expense.”
The Imaging e-Ordering Coalition is represented by legal authority and lobbying firm, Holland
& Knight. For information on membership please call +1 (202) 457-7004. To date, the following
organizations are members of the Imaging e-Ordering Coalition: American College of Radiology
(ACR), Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI), GE Healthcare, Medicalis, Merge Healthcare and
Nuance Communications, Inc.
Imaging e-Ordering Coalition
The Imaging e-Ordering Coalition has been established to proactively interact with policymakers
and health care providers on certain issues related to imaging services. In particular, the
Coalition proposes to advance the use of electronic decision-support technologies that provide
clinicians with guidance regarding the ordering of patient-appropriate imaging services.
American College of Radiology
The 32,000 members of the American College of Radiology include radiologists, radiation
oncologists, medical physicists, interventional radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians. For
over three quarters of a century, the ACR has devoted its resources to making imaging safe,
effective and accessible to those who need it. The mission of the ACR is to serve patients and
society by maximizing the value of radiology, radiation oncology, interventional radiology,
nuclear medicine and medical physics by advancing the science of radiology, improving the
quality of patient care, positively influencing the socio-economics of the practice of radiology,
providing continuing education for radiology and allied health professions and conducting
research for the future of radiology.
CDI
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) has been a leader in highquality, cost-effective, outpatient radiology imaging services since 1981, and currently owns
and/or operates 51 diagnostic imaging centers in nine states, including Indiana, Ohio, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Washington and Florida. CDI partners with hospitals
and health systems to offer physician-led, outpatient radiology services and the expertise of subspecialized radiologists focused on neurological, spine, musculoskeletal, body and
cardiovascular imaging, in addition to advanced diagnostic injections and pain management
procedures. CDI is owned by CDI physicians and management along with Onex Partners, a
subsidiary of Onex Corporation in Toronto, Canada. For more information, visit CDI’s Web site
at www.CDIrad.com.
GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a
new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies,
medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical
manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help
our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition,
we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to
implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we
continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving
quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare
is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare
employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their
patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website
at www.gehealthcare.com.
Medicalis Corporation
Medicalis is a leading provider of healthcare information technology and Clinical Decision
Support for diagnostic imaging. Medicalis delivers web-based clinical and integration services to
physicians, providers and health plans to provide advanced diagnostic imaging solutions that
improve quality and efficiency of diagnostic services. Medicalis delivers solutions that provide
clinical guidelines for use at the point-of-care, point-of-service and point-of-analysis that address
the issues of unnecessary testing, resource utilization and patient safety. For more information
visit www.medicalis.com.
Merge Healthcare
Merge Healthcare Incorporated builds software solutions that automate healthcare data and
diagnostic workflow to build a better electronic record of the patient experience. Merge products,
ranging from standards-based development toolkits to fully integrated clinical applications, have
been used by healthcare providers worldwide for over 20 years. Additional information can be
found at www.merge.com
Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: NUAN) healthcare portfolio includes closed-loop
radiology management solutions to support the radiology practice from start to finish. Nuance’s
solutions significantly improve the diagnostic imaging workflow by adding radiology decision
support (RadPort) to enable data driven, real-time e-Ordering, speech recognition reporting
(PowerScribe and RadWhere), critical test result management (Veriphy) communication, and a
business intelligence solution (RadCube) for utilization management, patient and outcomes
analysis, as well as clinical and operational trending.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance
Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other
company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The statements in this press release, relating to future plans or future events or services, are
forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. These could
involve particular market trends, competition factors and other risks described in the documents
submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results, events and
services may vary significantly from the forecasts. The reader is warned not to rely on these
forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current
situation.
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