Diagnostic Services facilitates the provision of timely, cost-effective, and high quality diagnostic care in safe and secure environments. It includes the clinical services of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Radiology, and Nuclear Medicine . These services function in the settings of ambulatory care, acute care, mental health, geriatric and rehabilitative care. Facility based diagnostic service employees include physicians, nurses, technicians, technologists, administrators, as well as program assistants and analysts. Combining these diagnostic services and employees into an interdisciplinary group facilitates the sharing of knowledge and permits uniformity of practices and policies.

Radiology

The Radiology Program Office, one of three programs comprising the Diagnostic Services, provides advice and recommends courses of action to VHA Headquarters, VISNs, and facility staff in order to facilitate the provision of timely, cost effective, and highest quality diagnostic care in environments which are safe for patients and caregivers.

The Radiology Program Office provides advice and recommends courses of action to VHA Headquarters, VISNs, and facility staff in order to facilitate the provision of timely, cost effective, and highest quality diagnostic care in environments, which are safe for patients and caregivers. It provides counsel to VA Central Office, VISNs, and facilities regarding trends in imaging statistics in support of effective decision-making. It recommends varied educational opportunities to diagnostic service employees at all levels. It identifies areas of research addressing the needs of our veteran patients. It collaborates with DoD and other government agencies to provide back-up diagnostic services in times of crisis or disaster. The Veterans Health Administration and the Radiology Program Office is committed to provide quality mammography services to our veterans and other patients. The radiographic goal is to generate the best possible reproducible quality image(s) at the minimal radiation dose necessary to give adequate image information.

Teleradiology

The Teleradiology Program provides remote radiologic interpretations. It is the process of sending radiologic images from one point to another through digital, computer-assisted transmission, typically over standard telephone lines, wide area network (WAN), or over a local area network (LAN). Through teleradiology, images can be sent from one from one location to another and even across the country.