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When a patient faces a major diagnosis—like cancer, cardiac surgery, complex autoimmune disease, or neurological disorder—the treatment choices that follow are often life-changing and expensive. For insurers, these are the moments when clinical accuracy and cost discipline intersect most critically. That’s why forward-thinking employers and payers, including both traditional health insurers and stop-loss carriers, are increasingly investing in second medical opinion programs.

As subspecialists, we all rely on radiology to inform our clinical decisions. Whether it’s an oncologist staging a tumor, an orthopedist assessing a fracture’s healing, or a neurologist evaluating subtle changes on an MRI, imaging often holds the key to diagnosis and treatment planning.

But for many of us, the greatest hurdle isn’t interpreting the images—it’s simply getting them in the first place.

For decades, “ROI” — Release of Information — has been the backbone of how medical records move from one place to another. It served its purpose: ensuring compliance, logging consent, and safely getting data from Point A to Point B.

But ROI was built for a paper-based past — a world of fax machines, CDs, and manila envelopes.

 That world no longer exists.

Medical images have become an increasingly common part of medical examinations and diagnoses. It should then come as no surprise that medical images are playing a more important role in legal trials involving personal injuries, medical malpractice and sometimes criminal law. 

Telehealth exploded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as patients and providers scrambled to find safe, effective ways to receive and deliver care remotely. While its popularity has more recently receded, it is fair to say that telehealth is now an engrained component of our healthcare delivery system.