Quality

The focus of quality improvement in healthcare is to bolster performance and processes related to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Leaders in this space also ensure the proper selection of imaging exams and procedures, and monitor the safety of services, among other duties. Reimbursement programs such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) utilize financial incentives to improve quality. This also includes setting and maintaining care quality initiatives, such as the requirements set by the Joint Commission.

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Financial incentives significantly increase radiologist compliance with quality-improvement initiative

UT Southwestern has introduced a grading template in knee radiograph reports to help decrease the use of unnecessary MR imaging. 

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How 4 E’s can reduce use of ineffective care

The proposed 4 E’s strategy is based on a hierarchy of effectiveness, suggesting that, while initial steps like education are crucial, they must be complemented by more robust measures to ensure durable change.

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More with less: Department cuts technologists’ wasted time searching for CT supplies by 62%

The University of Utah Health department of radiology recently tackled a quality improvement project to quash wasted minutes spent seeking syringes and other items in storage. 

William T. Thorwarth ACR American College of Radiology

Is Medicare’s appropriate-use criteria program doomed? ACR chief discusses what went wrong and how it can get back on track

Radiology Business recently sat down with William T. Thorwarth Jr., MD, to discuss the future of value-based care in the specialty and how Congress can help remedy the program of what ails it. 

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Inconsistent imaging: Radiologists letting personal preferences influence decision-making

There is significant variation from one radiologist to the next in suggesting follow-up head and neck imaging, Harvard experts detailed in AJR

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Breast cancer incidence rising among women under 50

This includes elevated diagnosis rates for non-Hispanic Black women in their 20s and 30s, before regular mammography screening starts. 

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24 hospitals earn ‘A+’ or ‘A’ for overall performance

Going by criteria set and applied by Money magazine, only two of America’s 6,000 or so hospitals deserve the title “best of the best.”

Souptik Barua, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Precision Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, explains how artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable accelerometers can be used in cardiac rehabilitation to phenotype step-count trajectories in older adults.

Leveraging AI and wearables for enhanced cardiac rehabilitation monitoring

NYU Grossman School of Medicine researchers used artificial intelligence and wearable activity trackers to improve the monitoring and classification of older adult cardiac rehabilitation patients.