The American Board of Radiology Cures Workflow Woes with PhotoShelter

Developing a Clear Picture of Efficiency

The American Board of Radiology (ABR) has a big job: making sure radiologists and medical physicists across the country are qualified and competent. They’re all about accuracy and high standards. But their own internal systems weren’t living up to those standards. Their growing collection of images was disorganized and hard to manage, creating headaches for their team and getting in the way of their mission.

The Challenge: Fractured Workflows and Scattered Files

Rodney Campbell and Heather Hopkins are key members of ABR’s communications team. Rodney manages their visual assets and social media efforts, while Heather creates the newsletters and marketing materials that keep the ABR connected with its members. But their outdated system was making it difficult to do their jobs effectively. They were wasting valuable time searching for files, struggling with storage limitations, and facing roadblocks when trying to collaborate.

• Files were hard to find. Without keyword tagging or structured folders, assets were difficult to find and required tedious searches. As Rodney explained, “You would think, okay, I have to find a photo of so and so, and you’d wonder, well, which folder is it in?”
• Storage limitations fragmented archives. ABR’s IT department discouraged saving large files, such as videos, due to space constraints. Rodney highlighted the issue, noting, “Our IT people were of the mind that it would be nice if we could have fewer files sitting there.” Valuable content had to be deleted or excluded, disrupting efforts to maintain a complete archive.
• Collaboration was slow and inefficient. Files were stored locally across multiple devices and folders, making collaboration cumbersome. Rodney described the challenge: “After a while, you could figure out who went where, such as members of our Board of Trustees. But it did require a little bit of seek and find.”

“In the old days, people could go in and grab a photo, and maybe the shot they got of a board member would be out of date when we knew there was a newer version. Maybe the old photo somehow ended up in there, and somebody would use it for a public purpose. In that way, it’s beneficial to be able to restrict that access.”

Rodney Campbell, Communications Manager, American Board of Radiology

The Solution: Prescribing Organization for a Healthy Workflow

Before PhotoShelter, managing assets was a slow, frustrating process. Now, with a centralized, intuitive system, ABR can organize, access, and share assets efficiently, transforming their workflows.

• Improved organization and searchability. PhotoShelter’s keyword tagging and folder categorization made assets easy to find. Rodney shared, “We just go to the platform, and we have everything tagged in there, broken into subsections, depending on the subject matter and it just makes it really easy to find.”
• A centralized archive preserves everything. By moving files to PhotoShelter, the ABR eliminated the burden on its local network. “Being able to take our assets and tuck them into PhotoShelter instead of keeping them locally has been a big plus for us,” Rodney explained.
• Collaboration is seamless and efficient. Dedicated folders for specific projects allow team members to access files independently. PhotoShelter was simple to adopt, making the transition painless. Rodney highlighted, “It wasn’t terribly hard to learn, either… it’s been pretty intuitive.” Heather agreed, adding, “If you take a little time to learn upfront, you’re going to save time in the long run.”

“PhotoShelter has been a good system for us. For example, we produce six employee newsletters and six external newsletters a year, so Heather is always working on a newsletter. She creates folders, puts all the images in there, and then makes our graphic designer aware. It’s really easy for him to go in and grab files that way, too. It’s really helped from an organizational perspective above anything else.”

Rodney Campbell, Communications Manager, American Board of Radiology

ABR’s Content Management is Now in Focus and Ready for the Future

PhotoShelter gave the American Board of Radiology the tools to organize their assets and focus on their mission with greater efficiency and confidence. With faster workflows, reliable storage, and improved collaboration, the ABR can now deliver consistent, high-quality communications while supporting its broader mission of certifying radiologists and medical physicists and protecting public trust.

“PhotoShelter has been a great archival system for us, and it’s been a way to be able to know what assets we have, where they can be found, and where they can be shared, too. It’s made us much more organized.”

Rodney Campbell, Communications Manager, American Board of Radiology