After nearly two decades building her company into the industry leader for third-party review of dental insurance claims, Dianne Rose, D.D.S., and principal of P&R Dental Strategies, Inc., was frustrated. In spite of many advances over the years in both dental x-ray technologies and the average quality of images supplied for review of dental claims, there was no consistency and, all-too-often, regardless of how up-to-date the x-ray equipment being used may have been, the images supplied were blurred and nearly useless for making accurate diagnostic determinations.
"At the end of the day," Dr. Rose recalled, "if the human operating the x-ray machine doesn't get it exactly right, the image can be blurry, distorted and ineffective for supporting dental claims. And, often, even when they do get it right, the images are difficult to see with clarity."
In order to support its claim review business, P&R needed to find a way to improve the diagnostic value of submitted x-ray images. Current available scanners and systems just did not have the diagnostic quality required by the P&R consultants to make definitive clinical determinations. As a result P&R developed and built its own system for digitizing x-ray images. The Rapid Review Imaging System is the result.
The system consists of both hardware and software, with a specially designed camera and light table to collect the images for enhancement, and is extremely easy to operate. The user simply puts any x-ray on the light table and clicks to capture the image.
Of course, it is the software – the proprietary program at the heart of the system – that does the magic. First it analyzes the target image to determining optimal camera and lens settings for the image, then sophisticated non-linear algorithms transform the image, performing a dynamic enhancement that produces a crisp, clear translation, one good enough for accurate diagnostic review.
The Rapid Review Imaging System was designed to be as fully-functional as possible and includes these features:
- A preview window to let the operator see the captured image immediately.
- Accurately translates any size x-ray, mounted or unmounted, and even captures names and dates on x-ray mounts and envelopes.
- Quickly digitizes photos and paper documents in color or black and white.
- Includes a barcode scanning feature for even faster processing, or it can be programmed to fit within the users established procedures.
- Multiple x-rays may be stored in one file, or multiple files and may be stored locally or over a LAN.
- Filename conventions are customizable and auto-incremental when capturing multiple files within a claim.
- Batch processing support is available. P&R also offers off-site archiving of client files with web-based on-demand access, fully HIPAA compliant.
"With tools like Rapid Review plus our outstanding team of professional claim reviewers all across the country," says Dr. Rose, "not to mention our long years of hands-on experience in the field, we are fully up-to-speed to provide every conceivable advantage to benefits payers looking for the ultimate in dental benefit cost containment."