As with any endeavor, you can only do as much as the tools you have let you do. A basic radiology information system can help you view PACS and reports, but in order to measure productivity you have to have equipment for analysis, Busch says.
"A good RIS system gives you analytic tools to manage the department," he says. The information should be easy to understand with charts and diagrams, "not just rows of numbers for 10 pages."
At his department, they use an RIS made by the British health IT company iSoft (http://www.isofthealth.com/en-GB/Solutions/UK%20Department/Radiology.aspx), and have an automatic system to record usage of equipment by gathering data sent from MRI and CT scanners. But he says any good RIS system that lets you evaluate data would work.
