Lean Radiology: Unlock Your Operational Advantage with Dr Stephen Holtzman

Most radiology groups think growing market share means better equipment or more sub-specialists. Dr. Stephen Holtzman proved otherwise, and he has the numbers to back it up.

Stephen is an interventional radiologist, Founder and CEO of TurboRad, and former CEO of Radiology Associates of San Luis Obispo (RASLO), where he led a full lean transformation that grew practice revenue from $15 million to $25 million. A Dartmouth-trained master’s in healthcare quality improvement, former president of the California Radiological Society, and the founder of two healthcare companies, Stephen’s approach is built on one deceptively simple idea: apply the scientific method to running your business.

In this episode, Stephen walks through how he trained all 120 employees in lean principles, executed hundreds of rapid improvement events, and built an internal green belt and black belt program so effective that outside medical practices started paying to participate. He explains how a single process change, eliminating a patient intake form, opened up 30% capacity on X-ray in one afternoon. And he details how relentless focus on consistent, fast, high-quality radiology reports allowed RASLO to rank #1, #2, and #3 in ER report turnaround time across all 180 CommonSpirit Health hospitals, eventually taking over a competitor’s book of business with four radiologists instead of the six the hospital insisted it required.

Stephen also shares how that operational foundation led directly to his two companies: The Holvan Group, a patient education video platform now used at UC Davis, MD Anderson, Emory, and Georgetown, and TurboRad, a radiologist reporting tool built on 15 years of lean refinement that is already logging 1,400 implemented improvement suggestions in its first year and doubling radiologist RVU output per hour.

If you are running an imaging center, leading a radiology department, or building healthcare technology, this is one of the clearest case studies on what lean actually looks like when it works at the highest level.