Healthcare organizations today face an increasingly complex challenge: ensuring that patients receive timely follow-up care after diagnostic studies. Missed follow-ups impact quality metrics, increase liability exposure, and contribute to late-stage disease diagnoses that often could have been prevented with earlier care.
During the recent webinar Smarter Follow-Up, Stronger Results: The RADNAV Advantage, Senior Director of Channel Partner Sales Adam Kirell shared how RADNAV, ImagineSoftware’s AI-driven patient follow-up platform, is transforming patient engagement and driving stronger revenue performance.
“RADNAV is automated patient follow-up. It’s an AI tool focused on doing three main things for your practice: reducing liability risk, improving patient outcomes, and increasing exam volume.”
The rest of this article explores how RADNAV delivers on all three.
Understanding the Challenge: Why Follow-Ups Fail Today
One of the most striking insights from the webinar was this:
Nearly 50% of patients who receive a follow-up recommendation never complete it.
According to Kirell, these missed follow-ups almost always come down to one root cause: communication breakdowns.
Patients forget paper orders left on the kitchen counter. Referring physicians are too busy to manage long-term follow-up timelines. Diagnostic practices rarely have visibility into what happens after a report leaves their system.
Those gaps result in:
- Increased liability exposure from failure-to-communicate situations
- Late-stage diagnoses, particularly for cancers that could have been identified earlier
- Lost revenue opportunities, since patients never return for the follow-up exams they need
- Fragmented continuity of care, especially around emergency department visits
Without systematic, proactive communication, both patient safety and financial performance suffer.
What Is RADNAV?
RADNAV was designed specifically to close these gaps and modernize follow-up workflows. Kirell sums it up well:
“RADNAV is an AI-driven follow-up care coordinator… handling from end to end the process of identifying patients that have follow-ups, communicating with patients and their care team, and bringing all that data back into your practice.”
Built on natural language processing (NLP) and advanced language models, RADNAV reviews every report, identifies follow-up needs, and then drives patients and providers toward completion of those recommendations.
RADNAV’s Core Functions
- Interprets clinical reports automatically
RADNAV can:
- Detect whether a follow-up recommendation is present
- Identify the modality, anatomy, and timing
- Apply guideline-based logic (for example, Fleischner, BI-RADS, LI-RADS, TI-RADS)
- Recognize risk scores and indicators that imply a follow-up, even when not explicitly stated
- Understands patient status in the journey
RADNAV checks:
- Whether an order exists
- Whether the patient has scheduled the follow-up
- Whether the follow-up is non-matured, coming due, overdue, or non-compliant
- Activates intelligent communication sequences
Using text, email, and eFax, RADNAV automatically:
- Sends reminders to patients at the right time
- Prompts patients to speak with their provider when appropriate
- Sends order templates to referring physicians for quick sign-and-return
- Nudges patients to schedule once an order is in place
Kirell offered a simple but powerful example. Many patients are told they need a follow-up in 12 months. They cannot schedule that far out, forget the paperwork, and never return. RADNAV fixes this with better timing.
“We’re not asking them to schedule 12 months out. We’re asking them at the appropriate time, when we know there’s availability and they have visibility into their schedules and lives.”
Turning Missed Follow-Ups into Completed Care
RADNAV moves follow-ups from “good intention” to “completed action” through staged, targeted outreach:
- Shortly after the initial exam
A message prompts the patient to speak with their doctor and provides contact details. - Months before the follow-up is due
If no order exists, RADNAV sends an eFax to the referring physician with a pre-filled order template and necessary documentation. - Closer to the due date
Once an order is present, RADNAV reaches out to the patient with a prompt schedule. This can include a link to self-scheduling tools or a scheduling phone number. - If automation is not enough
The system escalates non-responsive cases so a human coordinator can call the patient or contact the referrer directly.
Through this approach, RADNAV greatly increases the likelihood that patients complete their recommended care
Real-World Impact: Clear Quality Gains and Revenue Growth
Kirell emphasized that RADNAV supports both clinical and financial goals.
“Radnav is a revenue-generating tool. That is one of its primary purposes: outcomes and revenue.”
Case Study 1: 250,000 Annual Studies
One practice using RADNAV, with approximately 250,000 studies per year, achieved:
- Breast MRI adherence: 50% to 87%
- Breast ultrasound: 62% to 78%
- Chest CT: 38% to 50%
- Thyroid ultrasound: 40% to 67%
On the revenue side, RADNAV helped recover roughly 7,000 additional studies per year, translating to about 1.4 million dollars in added annual revenue.
Case Study 2: National Group, 2.5 Million Exams
Another client, a national organization performing about 2.5 million exams annually, started with RADNAV on only selected modalities and anatomies. Even with this limited scope:
- Baseline adherence improved from 39% to 52%
- Over 15,800 additional exams were captured in just 10 months
- Additional revenue exceeded 3 million dollars
According to Kirell, when you zoom out across an entire practice, the math is compelling:
“Radnav is going to typically drive you anywhere between four and six dollars more per study that you are doing.”
Why This Matters for Quality and Safety
RADNAV does more than fill schedules. It directly supports safer care and earlier detection.
Reduced Liability Risk
Through automated tracking and documentation, RADNAV gives practices full visibility into who was contacted, when, and with what message.
“If ever there was a lawsuit, you can show that we have the audit trail, that the recommendation was communicated.”
Some practices have even used RADNAV as part of formal risk management programs and discussions with malpractice carriers.
Earlier Disease Detection
Every completed follow-up represents a patient who is more likely to have a disease caught earlier, rather than presenting years later with advanced symptoms.
Kirell reminded attendees that behind the numbers are real people:
“When you think about what those numbers are, those are people. Twenty-five thousand people that potentially have a cancer that can be detected early.”
Business Intelligence That Actually Drives Action
RADNAV’s analytics provide a detailed view of performance across the practice.
Referrer Analytics
RADNAV can show:
- How many patients each referrer sends
- How many recommendations go back to that referrer
- How many of those patients return for follow-up at your practice
This helps teams identify patterns. For example, if a practice sends 100 follow-up recommendations to a particular referrer and only a handful of patients return, that might trigger a conversation.
“Maybe we make a phone call to Dr. Smith. What’s going on? Why are those patients not coming back?”
Radiologist Metrics
The system also tracks:
- How often each radiologist includes follow-up recommendations
- The clarity and specificity of those recommendations
- Completion rates associated with different radiologists
Ambiguous recommendations such as “follow-up recommended” are less likely to be followed. Clear guidance that specifies modality, anatomy, and timeframe drives better adherence.
RADNAV surfaces these patterns so groups can support peer learning and best practices.
Revenue and Charge Data
For Imagine billing clients, RADNAV can tie follow-up completion directly to charges and revenue. Practices can see:
- How many follow-ups resulted in completed exams
- What charges were generated
- How follow-up programs are affecting revenue over time
This makes the impact of quality-driven follow-up efforts fully visible.
Strengthening Relationships With Referrers and Patients
RADNAV not only helps with internal operations; it also enhances the experience for both patients and referring providers.
- Patients see that the imaging or diagnostic practice is actively looking out for them.
- Referring physicians feel supported instead of burdened by follow-up tracking.
“It’s letting the referring doctors know that this is a practice that is going to make sure they are taking care of my patients. Because of that, I am probably going to send more patients there.”
This combination of clinical support and operational reliability often leads to stronger loyalty and increased referrals.
Supporting Hospitals and Emergency Departments
RADNAV is particularly valuable in hospital-based groups and emergency departments.
Many patients use the emergency department as their primary access point for care. An imaging exam performed during an ED visit may include long-term follow-up recommendations. However, emergency physicians focus on acute issues and typically are not responsible for tracking something that needs to occur in six to twelve months.
RADNAV helps by:
- Tracking follow-up recommendations that originate in the ED
- Guiding patients back for needed imaging
- Helping connect patients with primary care within the health system
- Reducing inappropriate ED utilization over time
This supports both quality metrics and appropriate use of resources.
Flexible Workflows Across Specialties and Service Lines
Although imaging is a natural starting point, RADNAV can be used in many areas, including:
- Orthopedics
- Urgent care
- Emergency medicine
- Interventional radiology
- Office-based labs (OBLs)
Practices can create custom workflows for specific procedures or care pathways, even when a follow-up is not explicitly documented in the report. For example, interventional radiology cases often require routine follow-up, and RADNAV can ensure that those patients are contacted and scheduled.
RADNAV and Pay-for-Performance: A New Revenue Channel
Pay-for-performance contracting is not new, but AI-driven data collection has made it far more feasible for providers to participate.
Kirell explained that payers benefit financially when their member populations complete screenings and preventive care. This improves CMS star ratings and lowers long-term treatment costs. Through pay-for-performance contracts, providers can share in that value.
“In exchange for providing data around quality metrics, and in addition also helping to improve those quality metrics, the insurance companies will pay you for that data and information, because they are benefiting from it as well.”
RADNAV supports this by:
- Capturing quality metrics such as adherence rates and turnaround times
- Aggregating and structuring data across modalities and locations
- Producing reports that meet payer requirements
Because many organizations do not have in-house data science teams, RADNAV removes a major barrier to entry.
“Practices do not have data science teams on hand to analyze data and report it to insurance companies. But now with AI and tools like Radnav, we can capture that data very easily and affordably and produce it for the insurance companies to enable these pay-for-performance contracts.”
Pay-for-performance can become a significant, recurring revenue stream, especially when applied across multiple insurers, sites, and clinical programs.
Fast Implementation and Immediate Return
Another advantage of RADNAV is the speed to value.
- Typical implementation time is four to six weeks.
- The platform can look back in time to identify follow-ups that are due now.
- Practices often see patients returning almost immediately after go-live.
Kirell summarized the impact clearly:
“We are generally getting a real-world ROI of about five to fifteen times in many cases.”
Final Thoughts: A Strategic Advantage in Quality, Safety, and Revenue
RADNAV is more than a helpful tool. It is a strategic asset that touches every dimension of a modern practice:
Quality
- Higher adherence to follow-up recommendations
- Earlier detection of disease
- Guideline-aligned care pathways
Safety
- Reduced malpractice risk through documented communication
- Fewer patients falling through the cracks
- Better continuity across departments and settings
Revenue
- Recovery of missed follow-up exams
- Additional dollars per study across the practice
- New income through pay-for-performance programs
As Kirell put it:
“Radnav is able to generate immediate, meaningful, and sustainable ROI. It is good for patients, and it is good for your business.”
For organizations seeking to elevate patient care while strengthening their financial position, RADNAV provides a practical and powerful way to do both.
Help more patients complete the care they need.
See how RADNAV can transform your follow-up program with a customized walkthrough.
