Radiology Runs on Royal — And Spring Feels Different This Year

, , | April 24, 2026 | By

There's something about this time of year that feels like a reset.

Maybe it's the longer days. Maybe it's the fact that the industry's biggest planning conversations pick back up after the post-RSNA lull. Or maybe, for our team at Royal, spring 2026 just genuinely feels different. We opened the doors to our new offices in White Plains. The platform has evolved in ways I couldn't have fully described twelve months ago. And as I pack for Phoenix ahead of the Strategic Radiology Spring Summit (April 24-26), I'm carrying a perspective I've been building for a long time.

I started my career as a radiologic technologist. Before I understood what a RIS meant commercially, I knew what it meant to stand in the control booth, manage a patient who was scared, and then watch the workflow downstream either support that patient or abandon them to paperwork, phone calls, and confusion. That clinical foundation shaped everything that came after: years in healthcare sales, then a transition into marketing that felt less like a career change and more like finding the right room to keep having the same conversation.

That conversation is about what radiology actually needs from technology. Not what sounds good in a demo. What actually works on a Tuesday morning when your call queue is backed up, your authorization status is unclear, and a patient is sitting in your waiting room.

That's the conversation Andrea Lesh and I are looking forward to having in Phoenix.

What the Strategic Radiology Community Gets Right

Strategic Radiology brings together independent practice leaders who understand something that larger health system stakeholders sometimes don't: the margin for operational error in an independent practice is thin. Every no-show is a real dollar amount. Every coding error is a claim that goes out wrong. Every manual step in a workflow is a staff member's time that could have gone toward a patient.

The conversations at SR summits are grounded in that reality. Practice executives, radiologists, and quality improvement staff aren't looking for vision statements. They're looking for answers to questions like: How do I improve follow-up adherence without hiring more people? How do I reduce call center volume without sacrificing the patient experience? How do I know my coding is accurate at scale?

Those are the questions Royal has been building answers to. And this spring, those answers look meaningfully different than they did a year ago.

AI at Royal: Not a Feature. A Foundation.

The word "AI" gets used loosely in healthcare technology marketing. I say that as someone who works in marketing. So let me be specific about what it means at Royal, because specificity is what this audience deserves.

Royal's AI experience lives inside the platform under our MJ brand. MJ isn't an add-on or a bolt-on capability. It's the operational intelligence layer running across scheduling, documentation, coding, care coordination, and more. Here's what that looks like in practice for the three groups most represented in the SR community:

For radiologists and clinical staff: Follow-up adherence is one of the most difficult quality metrics to move. When a report recommends follow-up imaging, the path from recommendation to scheduled exam involves multiple handoffs, multiple phone calls, and a patient who may not understand the urgency. Industry data suggests fewer than half of patients who receive a follow-up recommendation in their radiology report actually complete that imaging. MJ Care+ was built specifically to close that gap, automating outreach to patients and referring providers so the recommendation doesn't get lost in the handoff.

For practice executives: No-show rates and call center efficiency are two of the most direct levers on revenue in independent practice. MJ Voice+, our AI-powered voice agent, handles inbound scheduling calls and has reduced call abandon rates from roughly 25% down to 6.79% in documented cases. Across our platform, practices have seen a 70% reduction in no-shows and 80% faster check-in. When staff aren't managing a call queue, they're managing the patient in front of them.

For quality improvement staff: For quality improvement staff: The hardest part of QI work usually isn't identifying a problem. It's figuring out what's actually driving it. MJ Smart+ lets you ask your data directly: where are no-shows clustering, what patterns exist around timing, what's influencing your clean claim rate. The answers are only as good as the data behind them, and a unified platform means every insight MJ Smart+ surfaces is pulling from the same source of truth. No reconciling exports. No questioning whether the numbers match.

Andrea has been in the room for conversations where these numbers land in real time with practice leaders who have been living with the opposite reality for years. Her perspective on where independent practices are in their AI readiness journeys, and where the hesitation actually comes from, is something I find genuinely valuable heading into a summit like this one.

What a New Season Means for Royal

Royal recently opened new offices in White Plains, New York. It's a relatively small detail to include in a post about AI and radiology workflow. But it matters because it reflects what happens when a company builds steadily and keeps its commitments over time. The new space is a marker of where 17-plus years of this work has taken us, and a commitment to where it's going.

The platform is more mature. The AI capabilities are operational, not conceptual. The team heading to Phoenix has enough combined years in this industry to skip the pitch and get to the actual problem.

The Questions We're Bringing to Phoenix

Andrea and I aren't attending the SR Spring Summit to talk at people. We're going to listen to where independent practices are right now in their technology journeys, specifically around:

AI adoption and readiness. What's the real appetite for AI-assisted workflows versus the hesitation? What does implementation look like for a practice without a large IT team?

Quality metric accountability. How are SR practices currently measuring and reporting on follow-up adherence, coding accuracy, and care coordination outcomes? What's working and what isn't?

The staffing reality. High turnover in scheduling departments remains one of the most consistent operational challenges we hear about. How are practices building workflows that don't depend on institutional knowledge that walks out the door?

These aren't rhetorical questions. They're the ones our platform is actively built around, and the answers we hear in peer conversations at summits like this one directly shape what we prioritize next.

Find Us in Phoenix

If you're attending the Strategic Radiology Spring Summit, April 24-26 in Phoenix, we'd welcome the conversation. Whether you're deep into a technology evaluation, just starting to ask questions about AI in your workflow, or simply want to compare notes on what's actually working in independent practice operations, that's exactly why we show up.

Radiology runs on Royal. This spring, we're ready to show you what that looks like.

What is the Strategic Radiology Spring Summit?
The Strategic Radiology Spring Summit is a semi-annual conference for leaders of independent radiology practices across the United States. It is organized by Strategic Radiology, a coalition of privately owned radiology groups, and brings together practice executives, radiologists, and operational leaders for peer collaboration, education, and technology discussions specific to independent practice.
When and where is the Strategic Radiology Spring Summit 2026
The 2026 Strategic Radiology Spring Summit takes place April 24-26 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Who attends the Strategic Radiology Spring Summit?
Attendees are typically executives, administrators, radiologists, and quality improvement staff from independent radiology practices and outpatient imaging centers. Strategic Radiology represents privately owned practices with radiologists who operate outside of large health system structures.
What is Strategic Radiology?
Strategic Radiology is a national coalition of independent radiology practices committed to preserving and advancing private radiology. Member practices share resources, best practices, and peer insights to navigate the operational, financial, and technological challenges unique to independent practice.
What topics are covered at the SR Spring Summit?
Discussions typically cover radiology information systems, Ai-powered workflow automation, revenue cycle management, staffing and operations, patient experience, regulatory compliance, and technology evaluation for independent practices.
What is Royal Health Inc?
Royal Health Inc is a cloud-native radiology workflow and patient experience platform. Royal's platform serves outpatient imaging centers and independent radiology practices across the U.S., covering scheduling, patient engagement, clinical workflow, revenue cycle, and Ai-powered automation under a single system.
What is MJ at Royal Health?
MJ is Royal Health's Ai experience, embedded throughout the platform. MJ powers a suite of intelligent agents designed to automate and optimize radiology operations, including call center and scheduling automation (MJ Voice+), follow-up care coordination (MJ Care+), document digitization (MJ Lens+), data search and retrieval (MJ Smart+), and Ai-assisted coding (MJ Code+).
How does Ai improve radiology workflow for independent practices?
Ai-powered tools reduce reliance on manual processes across the exam lifecycle. At Royal, MJ agents handle tasks like inbound scheduling calls, follow-up coordination after report recommendations, document processing, and coding support, freeing clinical and administrative staff to focus on patient care. Practices on the Royal platform have seen a 70% reduction in no-shows, 80% faster check-in times, and follow-up coordination after report recommendations, helping address an industry-wide gap where less than half of recommended follow-up imaging is actually completed.
What is MJ Voice+ and how does it reduce call abandonment?
MJ Voice+ is Royal Health's Ai-powered voice agent for radiology call centers. It handles inbound patient calls, answers questions, and schedules exams without requiring a staff member on the line. In documented cases, MJ Voice+ has reduced call abandon rates from approximately 25% down to 6.79%.
What is MJ Care+ and how does it improve follow-up adherence?
MJ Care+ is Royal Health's Ai-powered care coordination agent. After a radiologist's report recommends follow-up imaging, MJ Care+ automates outreach to patients and referring providers to close the loop. Industry data suggests fewer than half of recommended follow-up imaging is actually completed. MJ Care+ was built to address that gap directly, reducing the manual coordination burden on clinical and administrative staff.
Will Royal Health be at the SR Spring Summit 2026?
Yes. Kelly Martin, Head of Marketing, and Andrea Lesh, Head of Sales, will represent Royal Health at the 2026 Strategic Radiology Spring Summit in Phoenix. Both welcome conversations with practice leaders about Ai-powered workflow, technology evaluation, and independent practice operations.