Michigan-based Advanced Radiology Services (ARS) has joined the Strategic Radiology coalition.

The move pushed the membership of the coalition of independent radiology practices past 1,500 radiologists.

ARS is a private practice with 214 subspecialty radiologists in 30 hospitals, 10 healthcare systems, and dozens of outpatient imaging centers, physician offices, and urgent care centers.

“We are thrilled to welcome Advanced Radiology Services to our growing coalition,” said Dr. Scott Bundy, Strategic Radiology CEO and chair, in a statement.

The addition of ARS, he advised, “increases our resources and institutional knowledge base, which proliferate across our organization to strengthen private practice radiology.”

ARS has grown to one of the largest private practice radiology groups nationwide, performing about 2.8 million studies annually.

“ARS is eager to join the other private groups that comprise SR in standing together nationally for independent private radiology practice,” said its president, Dr. Ryan Duhn.

SR was in the news in January when it inked a relationship with RIS innovator MedInformatix — which was named a preferred vendor of RIS to Strategic's nationwide membership.

“MedInformatix has been a pioneering force in RIS technology, introducing new solutions like mobile applications that strengthen the ties between provider and patient, and contribute a whole new level of efficiency to the practice level. We are thrilled to welcome them as a Preferred Vendor to our members," Strategic's COO Barbara Perez-Deppman said in a statement at the time.

In December, 2021, Strategic and Rad AI finalized an enterprise-wide partnership agreement at RSNA's national meeting. The arrangement will provide SR’s member practices with preferred access to Rad AI Omni.

“After thoroughly evaluating numerous radiology AI solutions via our collaborative we believe Rad AI Omni will provide the most impactful value proposition for our member groups,” said Bundy in a statement at the time, noting that, “Rad AI Omni’s automated impression generator extracted from the radiologist’s dictated findings not only results in enhanced report quality and efficiency, but also helps alleviate fatigue by the end of a shift. We are excited for this partnership opportunity via the enterprise-wide agreement and look forward to accessing additional AI products and services currently under development at Rad AI.”

In October, 2021, Strategic struck a deal with Intelerad Medical Systems to supply members with cloud-based medical image management systems for performance and workflow optimization. Offerings include InteleOne XE, a cross-enterprise diagnostic imaging platform for managing patient volume; the nuage Cloud Imaging Platform with IntelePACS, which uses communications and compression technology to preserve image and data quality; and Clario SmartWorklist, a personalized and context-aware enterprise imaging solution designed to intelligently manage reading workflow.

That partnership should let radiology practices remain independent by providing them with enhanced interoperability to share their technologies and collaborate with peers across practice settings. In doing so, the aim is to reduce burnout, improve operational efficiencies and adjust radiology’s private practice model for the better.

“The technology needed to address these challenges has often been out of reach for many independent, small- and mid-sized groups. Together with Intelerad, we’re thrilled to now provide our member groups access to rich solutions that increase productivity,” Bundy noted in a statement at the time.

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