The Power of Specialization
As technological growth and the advancement of knowledge lead to increasing complexity in the medical field, the quality of medical outcomes can relate directly to the level of specialized knowledge the physician has in a particular area. However, as diagnostic technology, equipment and procedures have advanced rapidly, recent evidence suggests that specialized human diagnostic expertise to use the technology may not have evolved accordingly to diagnose with accuracy and confidence.
Specialization makes the difference
A recent mammography study published in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute found that while some physicians failed to identify breast cancer
71% of the time, other physicians were highly accurate with an error rate
of only 3%. It was the degree of specialization and the volume of experience
that made the difference. Physicians who interpreted 2,500 to 4,000 specialized
studies per year had the lowest misdiagnosis rate.1
The traditional jack-of-all-trades approach
Today, a practice exists whereby radiological diagnostic tests may be read by generalists – not specialists. An imaging facility might have a single radiologist on staff to read its studies – an individual who might be called upon to make precise diagnoses for all conditions, regardless of disease state, body part or diagnostic modality. This forces diagnosticians into a jack-of-all-trades scenario.
Premerus harnesses the power of specialization
Premerus has built the first diagnostic platform that delivers access to the specialty expertise of some of the nation’s leading diagnostic physicians. Premerus uses proprietary technology to match individual cases with diagnostic specialists and then transmit the clinical data and images to them for expeditious review. By matching physicians across the country with expert diagnostic skills to individual cases based on the clinical needs of each patient, Premerus connects the patient with an appropriate diagnostic expert.
