RBMA 2026: Radiology’s Next Era Will Be Defined by Disruptors

RBMA 2026 made one thing clear: Radiology is no longer in a phase of incremental change. It’s entering a period of structural transformation.

AI, rising study volumes, workforce constraints and shifting care models are all converging at once. As Kaihan Krippendorff, founder of Outthinker, framed in the opening keynote, industries facing this kind of acceleration split into two camps: the disruptors and the disrupted.

Radiology is at that point now.

Moving Beyond Legacy Metrics

For years, radiology operations have been optimized around familiar metrics like turnaround time and work relative value units (wRVUs). But these metrics only tell part of the story.

Elizabeth Bergey, MD, Chief Clinical Officer at Rad AI, led a session that highlighted why.

wRVUs, while foundational, don’t reflect the true effort required to interpret studies. A CT on an elderly patient can take significantly longer than the same study on a younger patient, yet both are credited the same. Traditional metrics flatten this complexity.

Her approach introduces a more accurate lens:

• Estimated Read Time (eRT): the actual time required to interpret a study, derived from system data
• Normalized RVU (nRVU): a recalibration of productivity based on time, not just volume
• Modified eRT (eRTm): a refined model that accounts for factors like patient age, which follows a clear J-shaped relationship with interpretation time

These aren’t just theoretical improvements. They enable real operational change — from smarter case distribution to more accurate staffing and clearer visibility into productivity and profitability.

In one case, applying these metrics led to meaningful turnaround time improvements and millions in cost savings driven purely by better decision-making.

The takeaway is simple: When you measure work more precisely, you can manage it more effectively.

A Moment Forcing Re-evaluation

That same theme is playing out across the industry.

The upcoming end-of-life timelines for legacy reporting systems like PowerScribe® 360 are forcing organizations to make decisions they’ve deferred for years. What was once “good enough” is now under scrutiny.

But this moment is about more than vendor migration. It’s an opportunity to rethink a more fundamental question: Should reporting systems simply document work, or should they actively improve how radiologists work?

The answer will separate disruptors from those trying to preserve the status quo.

Why Workflow Is the Real Battleground

At Rad AI, we believe the future of radiology will be shaped at the workflow level.

Radiologists today face increasing volumes, growing documentation burden and fragmented systems. In that environment, small inefficiencies compound quickly.

The biggest opportunity isn’t adding more tools. It’s removing friction.

That means:

• Reducing cognitive load, not increasing it
• Integrating into existing workflows, not disrupting them
• Giving time back to radiologists at the point of interpretation

Because meaningful innovation in radiology isn’t about adding complexity. It’s about cutting through the administrative noise and giving radiologists more time to focus on what they were trained to do.

From Reactive to Proactive Radiology

The most forward-looking organizations are shifting from retrospective metrics to proactive operations.

Instead of asking “Did we meet our turnaround time goals?”, they’re asking:

• What is our true workload right now?
• Where are bottlenecks about to emerge?
• How do we route work dynamically based on capacity?

This is only possible when both your data and your tools reflect reality.

Defining the Next Phase of Radiology

RBMA 2026 reinforced that the gap between disruptors and the disrupted is widening.

The organizations that lead will be those that:

• Move beyond legacy assumptions about productivity
• Use moments of forced change to rethink workflows
• Invest in tools that improve the radiologist experience
• Turn data into actionable insight

At Rad AI, that’s the future we’re building toward.

Not just helping radiology keep up with change, but using this moment to shape what comes next.