The Johns Hopkins Department of Radiology and Radiological Science has a wide geographical footprint, with approximately 100 radiologists and 60 trainees serving patients at two academic hospitals, two community hospitals and four outpatient sites throughout the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. In addition to the long-time faculty members based in these locations, some of the newest hires to the department include radiologists reading remotely in other states. With faculty in so many locations across the miles, it can be challenging to bring people together.

Now, colleagues in Baltimore and Bethesda can connect in an instant, sharing ideas and issues at the click of a button, thanks to the Radiology Virtual Department (RVD). The RVD is the brainchild of radiology professor Jenny Hoang. An expert in neuroradiology with research interests in thyroid nodules and cancer, Hoang is currently chair of radiology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. While she was developing the RVD, she was serving as vice chair of radiology enterprise integration and medical director of Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging. In these roles, working with a variety of faculty, staff and trainees, Hoang knew she needed to find a way to bring everyone together. She quickly set to work. “My goal was to construct a virtual environment for the educational and clinical efforts of Hopkins Radiology,” Hoang explained. She created the RVD using Microsoft Teams. All Johns Hopkins radiology faculty and trainees were added to a team. New members were given a link to request access. Within the RVD team, there are channels for each radiology subspecialty. Division users “live” within their respective subspecialty and can access shared posts and files, meeting schedules, agendas and more. With the click of a button, they can see who was on shift on a clinical day and message them about a case. When meetings are held within subspecialty channels, other radiologists can drop into the meeting.

Meeting links can be shared with clinicians so they “meet” virtually with a radiologist for a screen share consultation. “This is a way clinician can enter the reading room without physically entering the reading room,” Hoang noted. RVD is also a repository of information. There are channels for functional groups — policy, procedure, IT, research — offering department policy, contact numbers, codes of conduct, copies of the vice chair newsletter, resident rotations and more. And there are fun groups to boost morale and build community — everything from foodies to fitness fans. Hoang aimed to make the RVD a fun, easy place for faculty and trainees to gather to share information and ideas, to come together despite the miles between them. She began developing the RVD in the summer of 2020. Like her colleagues, she had spent the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic isolated at her home workstation. As the weather warmed and case levels evened out, Hoang and her colleagues began making their way back into reading rooms. But it was quickly apparent that things were quite different. This was not the reading room Hoang remembered, with multiple people bent over one screen, pointing at images and sharing expertise. Social distancing, a prohibition on using the same keyboard and other necessary safety measures meant that, even in the same room, radiologists remained largely isolated. Seeing the need to develop a sense of community, Hoang further developed the RVD. She hoped to draw faculty and trainee users to the new platform and, once there, make it a useful place that kept people coming back. She worked with the radiology marketing team to develop an engaging infographic to share with the department. Using eye-catching images and easy, conversational language, the chart included information on how to access the Radiology Virtual Department, as well as user tips, the current number of users and more. The rollout started slowly, with low engagement from users in July 2020. However, as Hoang promoted the RVD through word of mouth and at faculty meetings, engagement rose sharply throughout August and September.

By the end of September 2020, the RVD boasted 146 active users — a marked success. Not only were users coming, but they were staying and using the platform. Users quickly found the RVD to be a much easier way to reach colleagues, a low-effort way to contact others when the previous option was most likely reaching out to a pager. The chat feature has become an invaluable way for faculty to share information with trainees and for trainees to ask questions of faculty. During the height of the pandemic, daily virtual teaching conferences allowed faculty, residents and fellows to coordinate — posting images directly into chat for discussion. With the click of a button, faculty mentors could offer feedback, while trainees could easily click and enlarge images on their own screen from wherever they were working. “Teams has been a really great way to teach and give feedback,” Hoang said.

The RVD has also allowed colleagues to connect, ask questions of each other, distribute work and cover for each other, while chat and video conferences have become a quick, easy way to share key findings with providers. In one example, Hoang points to an interaction she had with a radiation oncologist. She shared a meeting link, he hopped on and they were quickly able to connect in real-time. “It’s like we’re meeting together, but we are not in the same room, she said.

“But we are still able to share findings with each other and have a discussion.” The RVD continues to thrive today. In the wake of the platform’s success, new virtual departments have been created for Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center as well as the multidisciplinary tumor board. Looking back, Hoang believes she met her goal — constructing a virtual environment for the educational and clinical efforts of Johns Hopkins Radiology — but she also created more than that. Meeting virtually in a friendly space served as a morale boost for many, offering fulfillment both professionally and socially during an isolating time. “Teams became our water cooler,” Hoang said. “We had socials,” she noted, adding, “The RVD really helped us become more of a community at a time when we were physically distant.” Using chats, video calls, GIFs, emojis, user polls and more, faculty, residents and fellows were able to stay in touch across the miles. It is Hoang’s hope that other Johns Hopkins departments explore the benefits of developing their own robust virtual departments. “We created a community,” she concluded, “at a time that was bleak and dark for many people due to the lack of social interaction and the effect of the pandemic on personal lives.”