The important voices of our radiology clinical directors

Over the past two years, we’ve worked hard to galvanise our community of clinical leads and directors by providing exciting opportunities for them to come together and resolve shared challenges. Our Clinical Directors Network was established to enable leaders in clinical radiology to engage in a structured yet informal way, through both a WhatsApp messaging group and live webinars.

Webinars offer a way to interact and learn what colleagues across the UK are doing, though, in-person meetings are also invaluable. During our Clinical Directors Day earlier this month it was great to discuss the latest developments in technology, RCR guidance, leadership and share problems as well as network with colleagues. The feedback we had from clinical directors was incredibly helpful and I wanted to give an overview of some of the key topics we discussed.

AI

Technology was a big theme of the day, and it was insightful to hear how trusts are developing innovative ways to implement artificial intelligence (AI). Dr Susan Shelmerdine, a consultant paediatric radiologist, shared some of the factors that contributed to the success of her AI projects. Significant elements included having KPIs in the business case, and to have technical, management, clinical or governance resources and expertise. Dr Shelmerdine highlighted that in implementing AI, the key message is to think about the whole patient pathway and that AI doesn’t work if we don’t have people in the process.

iRefer

In presenting the benefits of implementing iRefer, Bryce Travers, Digital Lead for ImageEast, encouraged a focus on collective problem-solving. From Bryce's experience, supporting referrals for the right test, first time, has resulted in a significant positive behaviour change in terms of both referral quality and reducing requests for inappropriate diagnostic tests. This has also resulted in significant financial savings from reduced vetting and reporting overheads.

Influencing

Our President Dr Katharine Halliday emphasised the importance of influencing and managing change by identifying the hot topics and backing them up with data. Our census reports are one of the most important pieces of data to influence decision-makers, and the 100% response rate we receive each year makes the data authoritative. The data can also be used locally to influence our own trusts.

You can also help influence and steer the future of our work by joining our Insight Panel. Members complete two surveys per month, which take no more than five minutes to fill in. The feedback is invaluable to us, and we are always looking for more Fellows and members to take part, so please do sign up.

Leadership

Xytal CEO Dr Richard More’s talk on leadership focused on behaviour and personality traits. He detailed how behaviour and personality traits interact in conflict resolution. He spoke about the power of using smart questions to get desired outcomes during negotiations and how structured communications frameworks are an excellent tool for influencing decision-making. It was interesting to hear how his guidance emphasised the power of a ‘good listening to’ to help uncover the source of frustrations.

Your voices are highly influential when it comes to breaking down barriers in technology, leadership, workforce and training. We look forward to growing this network and working with you on the topics that are your key priorities.

We welcome any ideas you may have for future topics at the clinical directors’ network meetings.

 Please get in touch, and send your suggestions to: [email protected]