Emory at Grady Honors

Dr. Matthew Zygmont, associate professor of radiology and imaging sciences, has received both the Above and Beyond Award and the Innovation Award for 2024 from the Emory at Grady Professional Development Committee. The Above and Beyond Award recognizes a faculty member whose performance goes beyond the expectations of their position and advances the mission and vision of the Emory University. School of Medicine. The Innovation Award recognizes faculty whose innovation in research, education, service, quality, or leadership has made a major impact at Grady. This award identifies and recognizes faculty who have used creativity and innovation to improve patient care or trainee education by implementing new technology/procedures, making significant scientific discoveries, creating new operational processes or pioneering new programs.

Dr. Zygmont has devoted his career to serving the patients of Grady, first as a diagnostic radiology residents, then as an attending physician in the Division of Emergency and Trauma Imaging, and now as Chief of Radiology Services for the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Grady. Dr. Zygmont's commitment to improving the quality of patient care in radiology started with the way he provides care as a radiologist and quickly expanded to systems innovations that have yielded real results.

In May 2023, Dr. was appointed Chief of Radiology Services at Grady following the departure of Dr. Laura Findeiss. He more than earned the position of leadership. For the six months prior, he thoughtfully served in the role on an interim basis and during that time, he oversaw the installation of state-of-the-art CT and MRI scanners so patients have the most advanced technology available. He also has been essential to opening the new radiology facilities at the Correll Pavillion, expanding outpatient access to our vulnerable population.

He has built wonderful relationships with other departments’ chiefs of service to improve both imaging workflow and communication across the hospital. Our team works tirelessly to ensure referring physicians have the imaging interpretations they need to guide treatment decisions in a matter of minutes, not hours or days. When there are questions, Dr. Zygmont is readily available for both our diagnostic radiologists and ordering clinicians during all hours, even responding to critical issues while on vacation.  He steps into clinical service whenever imaging volumes overwhelm the system.  He constantly coordinates with leaders in other services to assess needs, identify bottlenecks to imaging services and always has a creative solution that benefits everyone.  At the same time, he is pursuing initiatives to guide appropriate imaging utilization both as a physician leader and educator.

Radiology is an essential component of patient care at Grady. The vast majority of patients have imaging studies completed by our department as part of their care. That means innovations in the way we provide such care have exponential impact on the quality of patient care systemwide.

For example, Dr. Zygmont worked closely with staff at Grady to significantly decrease the turnaround time for inpatient MRI, dropping it to just a few hours. Thanks to his work to improve staffing and support for our imaging technologists, we now successfully complete all MRI exams within 24 hours of ordering. Similarly, he worked with our Trauma Surgery colleagues to optimize CT protocols to expedite patient throughput. Resulting wait-time reductions now yield faster diagnoses and treatment implementation which in turn have reduced patient length of stay.

When the nation was overwhelmed by a serious CT contrast shortage, he effectively mediated a solution with our vendors to acquire new high-volume contrast containers and state-of-the-art injectors for Grady.  Due to the quick response, patients at Grady continued to receive reliable care when other hospital systems rationed their imaging. This new system is now more economical with less expensive components, decreased injector times and reduced waste.

Dr. Zygmont also has been working on reimbursement gaps at Grady. He not only has identified holes in the payment processing structure, he has significantly decreased the gap in reimbursement and continues to shrink the gap.

Now Dr. Zygmont is working with top hospital administrators to identify other needs for best serving Grady’s patient populations. This year he led efforts to expand provision of minimally invasive, image-guided procedures with a growing interventional radiology practice. He also is increasing the number of screening mammograms performed annually for Grady’s under- and uninsured patients. With his leadership, wait times for diagnostic mammograms have dramatically decreasd.  This is especially meaningful because early detection is essential for saving lives and reducing the financial and emotional costs of care, particularly important for minimizing disparities in care.

Dr. Zygmont long has understood the power of technology to drive positive change in patient care. He has leveraged the power of the EPIC system to flag and more effectively communicate the implications of incidental findings on imaging studies. By flagging such findings, he is creating opportunities for patients’ physicians to address multiple clinical issues at once rather than let patients fall through the cracks due to lack of follow-up, a persistent problem for underserved populations. He also is part of the radiology team investigating ways artificial intelligence tools can speed routine diagnostic tools and to provide an additional level of quality control.

Dr. Zygmont has become a powerful and persuasive advocate for the needs of patients too often forgotten by society. When Atlanta Medical Center closed in October 2022, Dr. Zygmont was a leader in planning to provide care for the vulnerable and largely uninsured patients who lost their primary source of health care, helping anticipate and respond to the additional patients who would receive imaging through Grady’s emergency department.

We are proud of Dr. Zygmont’s many innovations and their positive impact on the way Grady serves metropolitan Atlanta and beyond. His quiet, principled leadership and innovative thinking have profoundly and positively affected the quality of care we provide at Grady, making him most deserving of this award.  He has truly applied innovative leadership to advance the mission of the Emory School of Medicine at Grady, and in doing so he regularly goes well above and beyond expectations.