February 17, 2024
Meet Brian Phelan, Chief Operating Officer of Connexia! We sat down with Brian, who brings 20+ years of experience in diagnostic imaging to share more about the Connexia difference in the growing teleradiology space.
Q: From your perspective, how has teleradiology evolved over the years? Where do you think the industry is headed?
A: When I first entered the space in 2006, all teleradiology was mostly overnight, preliminary, and for the ER - mostly CT only to triage patients. Technology networks were not capable of very high output due to data limitations. Over the next ten years, teleradiology expanded into 24/7 availability - used for issuing final reports, and augmenting full-time equivalent if a subspeciality or radiology chair was missing that day. Groups were still reluctant to outsource at that time. Fast forward to today: technology is up to speed, and everybody uses teleradiology in some capacity.
I believe that the future of teleradiology looks like less staffing inside of hospitals and health systems - reserving that time for procedures, staff rounds, tumor boards, presentations - and more reading done remotely. The future is “tele”!
Q: What differentiates Connexia from other teleradiology practices? What excites you the most about Connexia’s future?
A: At Connexia, our biggest difference is we are vertically integrated within our enterprise - reading our own US Radiology outpatient imaging volume. This gives us a unique ability to connect the patient and referring provider journey, optimizing quality and customer experience from image capture to the final report.
Different from other practices, our rads are given a target number of Relative Value Units (RVUs) they need to read in a day. We simply want you to read X amount of RVUs a day on your own time - when it works for you. That is how we offer true work-life balance to our teleradiologists at Connexia. It’s a very unique offering we’re proud to have.
Q: When you’re not at work, what lights your fire?
A: When I’m not at work, I spend a lot of time outdoors where I live in California - hiking and traveling in the mountains. I also have three great kids, with two in college in Arizona and Utah, so lots of time visiting them as well!