Ledbetter named Medical Director of Brigham Health Medical Imaging IT Division

Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s Chief of Radiology Stephen Ledbetter, MD, MPH, has been named Medical Director of Brigham Health’s Medical Imaging IT Division. In this role, as part of the Partners 2.0 initiative, Dr. Ledbetter will work closely with counterparts at Massachusetts General Hospital to standardize and integrate the radiology IT systems among the Partners HealthCare institutions.

“IT is a foundational aspect of medicine today,” says Dr. Ledbetter. “We all use some sort of information technology in virtually every aspect of the work we do. Working from the same platform is the foundation on which true integrated healthcare delivery happens. To be able to be involved on the radiology side of what has already happened on the electronic medical record side with Partners eCare is really exciting.”

Just like with Partners eCare, which made a patient’s medical record available to providers across the Partners system, standardization of radiology IT will mean radiologists reading images at one hospital can readily see images taken at other Partners hospitals all within their picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

Dr. Ledbetter and his MGH colleagues will begin by selecting a PACS vendor and working to integrate their two systems. Then the project could expand Partners-wide. “It seems obvious to me that if Mass General and Brigham Health can do it, everyone across the Partners system can eventually come onto the same PACS system so that patient images are seamlessly available across every site no matter where the imaging study was performed,” says Dr. Ledbetter.

Despite taking on additional leadership responsibilities, Dr. Ledbetter will continue in his role as Chief at BWFH and his clinical work in emergency radiology. He says, “It’s a lot to manage, but it’s exciting and important work and I’m really looking forward to it.”