Top Five Challenges Facing CT Departments Today, According to Global Healthcare Experts

For nearly 50 years, computed tomography (CT) has proven to be a vital imaging tool used by clinicians to detect cancer, heart conditions, and other diseases large and small.

That said, today’s radiology departments are under pressure like never before. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, steadily growing patient volumes, a rapid rise in the number of images generated, and increasingly complex image reviews are straining CT departments to their limits. What’s more, departments are facing these challenges as they attempt to battle industry-wide staff shortages and burnout[1],[2].

For greater insight into the top challenges facing CT departments today, our GE Healthcare team spoke with several international healthcare experts for their thoughts and insights.

Challenge 1: Addressing a backlog of cases following the COVID-19 pandemic

“[Even in the wake of COVID-19,] every day is a new is a learning day. It really is. We haven't stopped even until today treating this thing…” -- William Gilmour, Lead CT Technologist, Baptist Hospital of Miami, USA

Healthcare systems face more strain than ever as they continue to care for critically ill COVD-19 patients, advanced diseases – such as cancer and heart disease – a backlog in non-urgent care cases, and an ageing population.

Throughout the pandemic, a fear of hospitals due to concerns about COVID-19, led to an estimated 41% of U.S. adults delaying or avoiding medical care altogether, including urgent or emergency care (12%) and routine care (32%)[3]. And in England, it’s estimated that 19,500 people have not been diagnosed with cancer that should have been due to missed referrals[4].

While the vaccination process is now well underway, alleviating some of these concerns, healthcare providers are uncovering more documented cases where recovered COVID-19 patients show long-term effects from the disease in the lungs, heart, immune system, brain and other organs[5]. Published medical literature indicates that patients hospitalized with COVID-19 commonly have lingering symptoms, sometimes for months and longer after negative COVID-19 tests [6], [7]. 

CT will play a critical role as healthcare systems work to reduce this backlog of cases as well as address new public health concerns brought on by the pandemic’s effect on public health, including the adoption of unhealthy eating habits, increased consumption of alcohol, and a lack of physical activity – all of which can have negative effects on heart health.

Challenge 2: Keeping up with today’s speed of innovation

“When you think of equipment here at our hospital, we anticipate that we will keep our CT systems for 10 years. Now, of course, a CT system is new. Over the years, it’s no longer the high-end system it was before. How can we make sure that during the lifespan of the system, there can be some improvements?” – Alain Luciani, M.D., Ph.D., Henri-Mondor University Hospital

While new CT systems leverage the latest smart technologies to help clinicians and healthcare systems address this backlog of patient cases, access to these cutting-edge solutions can be difficult.

Twenty years ago, new CT technologies were introduced every four-to-five years; but today, we see new solutions introduced annually.

On average, a CT system is eleven years old before it’s replaced, with software and application updates occurring four times per year[8]. But this high frequency of updates is a challenge and one of the main drivers of facilities not keeping systems up to date, with 44% expressing challenges during their attempts to do so.

Furthermore, the pace of innovation today has greatly accelerated due to the speed and growth of modern engineering, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. Because of these advancements, CT technology is becoming obsolete more quickly than ever before.

This challenge underlines the need for more scalable and easy-to-upgrade solutions in order to consistently provide the best possible care to patients.

Challenge 3: Healthcare workers are burnt out and lack time for training

“One of the biggest challenges is trying to stay at the edge of technology. But if you go too fast, you’ll lose the nurses and technologists around you. You can’t be a clinically excellent doctor if the people around you aren’t able to work with the technology. But if you don’t go fast enough, you won’t be able to treat your patients in the best way you can.”– Johan De Mey, MD, PhD, a head of the radiology department at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel in Belgium

Institutions capable of upgrading their systems to include the latest technologies are challenged to train staff on non-standardized user interfaces, especially as healthcare organizations across the country struggle with staff shortages.

As GE Healthcare discovered in a recent survey of radiology department heads and administrators[9], these challenges with respect to patient overload, scheduling and staff capacity are continuing to increase – and were made worse by the pandemic. And they are causing wide-ranging effects. For instance:

·        Staff well-being – measured in working hours – has suffered with 32% of survey recipients noting the need to recruit more staff to reduce workload. 

·        Rate of turnover in radiology staff is higher than in most other departments, averaging between 11-20%.

·        Staff training is often ranked as a lower priority, accounting for approximately 12% of radiology departments’ focus.

The cumulative effects of these pressures are a key reason why institutions struggle to get staff to ‘buy in’ on new solutions. Staff need to be convinced that the technology they are being trained on will not only improve their work life today but will continue to improve it in the future.

Like employees in any other industry, they want to know that they work they put in now won’t be obsolete in 3-12 months.

Challenge 4: The need for greater operational efficiency

“Workflow efficiency is critical. We have seen that by mapping our process. We can see some of our pain points, and then we can automate, we decrease errors, we provide better standardization and less variability.” – Ricardo Cury, M.D., Chairman of Radiology, Baptist Health

Expectations of healthcare systems are high, with communities relying on them to be prepared for anything. Clinicians are expected to have answers to questions that have never been asked; to understand something that has never been seen; and to do it with unwavering confidence and speed.

The world’s healthcare workers did an outstanding job rising to this challenge during the pandemic, but COVID-19 also revealed cracks in the foundation of an industry under pressure... and one of the biggest cracks revealed is the need for greater operational efficiency.

Speed and efficiency are critical to managing growing patient loads with consistent, high-quality results. Additionally, minimizing complexities by implementing consistent protocols, procedures and policies across hospital systems’ entire fleets are essential for improving overall hospital efficiency.

But adding new CT functionality by updating hardware and software needs to be strategically handled in a cost-effective way. For these efforts to be truly successful, healthcare systems are challenged to future-proof their CT investment with technology that will put them ahead of the technology curve now – and keep them there tomorrow.

Given the pace of innovation discussed above, this has traditionally been a herculean request, but new opportunities may be on the horizon.

Challenge 5: An overwhelming amount of data

“The biggest change over the last 20 years is the number of images and amount of data that has dramatically increased,” explains Dr. Luciani. “In this digital era, images are not only providing morphological images, but they are also providing quantitative data to impact patient care. And of course, that paved the way to all the artificial intelligence evolution that we see today in our current practice in radiology.”

Worldwide, hospitals are performing 3.6 billion imaging procedures and producing 50 petabytes of data annually. And the burden of collecting, reading and processing this data falls on radiologists, who amid mounting pressures, struggle to find timely and efficient methods to get their work done.

The cumulative effects of these pressures are a key reason why 36% of radiologists reported they were experiencing burnout, according to a 2020 study conducted by Medscape. It’s a figure that may rise further, as more patients return to elective procedures – like cancer screenings -- that were put on hold during the pandemic.

Leading global healthcare equipment manufacturers are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and other data-oriented technologies to benefit radiologists and their key stakeholders – especially patients and the physicians who are diagnosing and treating them. But while adoption of these technologies has increased, the majority of healthcare systems are still seeking solutions.

With all these challenges in mind, its small wonder that the theme for this year’s #RSNA21 conference is “Redefining Radiology,” as the need for a shift in the industry’s paradigm is well overdue.

Soon, we are excited to reveal how GE Healthcare will do just that – introducing industry-first CT technology to minimize technology obsolescence, optimize clinical capabilities, and standardize workflows now and in the futurei.

To learn more, visit GE Healthcare’s #RSNA21 booth in person or virtually on Monday, December 29.

[1] Gleeson, Cailey. “Healthcare staff shortages project for every state by 2026.” Becker’s Hospital Review. Published 29 September 2021. Accessed 24 November 2021. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/healthcare-staff-shortages-projected-for-every-state-by-2026-4-report-findings.html

[2] Levine, David. “U.S. Faces Crisis of Burned-Out Health Care Workers.” U.S. News & World Report. Published 15 November 2021. Accessed 24 November 2021. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-11-15/us-faces-crisis-of-burned-out-health-care-workers

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6936a4.htm

[4] https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/959391

[5] https://www.dicardiology.com/article/long-term-cardiovascular-impact-covid-19

[6] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQs2hWXaGTOGNbD_qw1WSn63voJNbXVU/view

[7] https://newsroom.uw.edu/resource/documenting-long-term-effects-covid-19

[8] GE Healthcare Insights. “How Clinicians See Today’s CT Challenges.” Published 16 November 2021. Accessed 20 November 2021. https://www.gehealthcare.com/article/how-clinicians-see-today%E2%80%99s-ct-challenges

[9] GE Healthcare data on file.