President’s column By Robert A. Lookstein, MD, FSIR The power of a collective I
By harnessing the collective power of our data, VIRTEX will enable us to secure the future of IR, but it will require time, energy and buy in.
nterventional radiology is a diverse and wide-ranging specialty that has revolutionized healthcare delivery. We know the value of our services and care— but vocalizing that value has been one of our oldest struggles.
One way we can address this is through sharing our data. To that end, we needed to develop a revolutionary, prospective quality data registry that can measure and defi ne the impact of our specialty on patients across the United States. We know this database as VIRTEX.
More than a data registry, VIRTEX is a powerful analytics tool that curates data automatically captured from the radiology informatics system and the electronic medical record into a national dataset, then leverages advanced analytics (such as natural language processing and machine learning) to provide data-driven decision support to enable IRs to optimize clinical care. VIRTEX provides a generational opportunity to not only defi ne quality of care for the diverse services that our specialty provides but can help identify disparate populations that might be better served by IR specialists.
This data set will allow us to realize one of the goals of our new strategic plan, which is to quantify and craft the value of our specialty to our patients, as well as our physician and healthcare providers stakeholders, regardless of the site of service. It will also empower our members to defi ne and share their value proposition at the local, regional and national levels.
By harnessing the collective power of our data, VIRTEX will enable us to secure the future of IR, but it will require time, energy and buy in.
We are still in the earliest phases of VIRTEX, but I believe that in time, it will become a foundation tool that will allow SIR to realize its strategic plan, empower the membership and showcase just how impactful we are.
SIR is actively on-boarding hospitals and practices to participate in the registry. To learn more about VIRTEX and how it supports quality improvement in interventional radiology, visit
sirweb.org.
6 IRQ | SUMMER 2025
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