Frida Kahlo Santore and her best friend Patrick F. Santore Jr., founding partner and CEO of Northern Light Medical Management and Northern Light Radiology Associates
Photo: Patrick F. Santore Jr.
Northern Light Medical Management employs 180 radiologists who provide professional diagnostic and interventional radiology services to hospitals and large health systems across the U.S. It offers on-site and remote coverage through the cloud and is licensed and credentialed at multiple facilities across various states. It will read 2 million studies in 2025 and expects to read 4 million in 2026.
THE CHALLENGE
The healthcare organization knew attracting strong radiologists – who are in great shortage – would be a challenge. It needed to ensure a business model, technology infrastructure and culture that would support a high-performing environment – but not at the expense of the people.
"Historically, radiologists generally interpret studies on each facility's native PACS system," said Patrick F. Santore Jr., founding partner and CEO at Northern Light, who has more than 30 years of experience in hospital-based radiology. "This approach may challenge the local radiologist's ability to interpret complex studies across a subset of imaging modalities and fellowship training.
PROPOSAL
"Northern Light has solved this problem by leveraging the talents of its radiologists across a single reading platform," he continued. "In our model, all radiologists – whether reading in the hospital or reading from remote locations – are reading studies on this platform. With all cases being handled through a single platform, we can ensure the right radiologist is reading the right study in real time."
The organization is growing quickly – doubling in size each year since it opened in 2023. With its initial imaging technology, it experienced lag time with remote reads from PACS systems, it needed a single worklist for the team to read for all clients – and staff wanted to integrate AI into the workflow. Santore said they needed an enterprise imaging infrastructure that could keep pace with the fast growth.
"Given that Northern Light covers its facilities on a 24/7 basis, we did not see a way to grow our business by reading from our clients' PACS," he explained. "We needed a system that would sit on top of client PACS that could also provide a common worklist and viewer for ease of use and deployment across the country and regardless of where the radiologist was physically based.
"I had previously had successful work with Merge at a past organization where I had worked, and I was eager to work with them again," he continued. "The vendor is a workhorse that tightly integrates with all the other hospitals and can deliver a unified worklist."
Northern Light purchased Merge Imaging Suite, which includes Merge Workflow Orchestrator, Merge VNA and cloud PACS, as well as worked with the vendor to engage other vendors that offer voice recognition software and embedded AI.
"The technology capabilities ensured we could adapt to meet hospital requirements while supporting our radiologists' professionalism and work-life balance, helping to attract and retain a strong staff," he added.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
Now, clients send studies from their local PACS to Northern Light's cloud imaging suite. Centralized worklists provide doctors with reading efficiency, and a single powerful diagnostic viewer enables them to quickly read and report based on their individual subspecialty training and expertise, Santore said.
"An additional benefit for hospitals is that this technology is creating redundancy for them," he explained. "In a traditional hospital, when its native PACS goes down, the hospital must go on bypass until it's back up. But with Merge, we can receive imaging directly from any modality, so the hospitals continue having studies being read. This means we're bringing our clients uninterrupted coverage 24/7.
"Radiology is a fraction of the service we deliver to our hospital clients," he continued. "This technology supports our larger vision for how we can be a long-term, strategic partner to our clients. We analyze the data we get from these systems to understand and share insights about larger population and operational trends impacting the hospital."
For example, Northern Light can see disease trends, the payer mix and where over-utilization might be driving costs. These insights can help clients with long-term planning for their service lines.
RESULTS
The healthcare organization is on pace to close 2025 reading 2 million studies and expects to be reading 4 million in 2026. Growth is fueled by its ability to rapidly deploy. A lot of hospitals reach out to the organization, and it is able to integrate within 60 days. In one case, Northern Light had 24 hours to provide on-site radiology coverage and was able to support that timeframe.
"With our current cloud-based technology infrastructure, there are no borders," Santore reported. "Northern Light's U.S.-based radiologists interpret studies in multiple states, and as a result of our technology-driven approach, we are in a great position to expand across the United States."
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
Radiology practices should be investing in technology and infrastructure – unfortunately, most are not in the financial position to do so, Santore said.
"We're going to see continued consolidation in this industry, and the technology infrastructure will be a big differentiator," he predicted. "Radiology is the heart of the hospital as well as its eyes and ears. All ER patients, in-patient and outpatient radiology patients have some type of imaging studies performed, all of which are interpreted by radiologists.
"That means the Northern Light radiology practices have access to hospital and community data, which is beneficial to the hospital partners they serve," he continued. "There is a perception out there that radiologists are hidden away reading in dark rooms in solitude. At Northern Light, radiologists are active and engaged members of the medical staff ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare delivery."
Northern Light supports its radiologists and allows them to be forward-facing and engaged with their peers, he added.
"We want our radiologists to have a healthy work-life balance and be able to walk away from their workstations to collaborate with the care teams," he concluded. "As a stable private practice with technology that enables others to share the workload remotely, we can offer that to our radiologists."
Follow Bill's health IT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
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