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.

Covera Health to vet prostate MRI providers for ‘Radiology Centers of Excellence’
The startup has partnered with employers such as Walmart, providers and health plans (including BCBS Michigan) to steer patients to top imaging centers.
Sterile, temperature-controlled preservation reduces long-term mortality after heart transplant by 54%
An advanced preservation system from Paragonix, a Getinge company, was linked to dramatic reductions in both mortality and procedural complications.
American College of Radiology updates imaging appropriateness criteria with 11 new topics
For the first time, the ACR Appropriateness Criteria is providing guidance covering staging and follow-up of leukemia, the college said Tuesday.
Enhancing STAT radiology exam order efficiency to reduce turnaround time
Raj Kedar, MD, chief of radiology at Tampa General Hospital, spoke on how to reduce the number of STAT imaging exams and inappropriate exams via staff education and additional questions of orders.
5 EHR-based strategies to reduce CT turnaround times
Simple practice changes have helped Denver Health cut the time from exam order placement to initiation by about 47%.

technologist MRI rad tech radiologic radiology

Deep learning-based reconstruction nearly halves spinal MRI acquisition times

The accelerated exam does not come at the expense of image quality, according to new work published in Academic Radiology.

Patients frequently fail to obtain follow-up imaging. Could radiologist-referrer disagreements be to blame?

Harvard researchers recently set out to answer this question, sharing their results Friday in the Journal of the American College of Radiology

Deep learning recons reduce contrast and radiation doses in aortic CTA

Deep learning reconstruction cuts radiation and contrast dose by half in aortic CTA exams

A new analysis in Academic Radiology dives into the importance of finding balance between reducing radiation exposure while maintaining image quality.

Hospitals pilot policies to test older radiologists’ mental and physical fitness

About 5% of U.S. healthcare organizations have now implemented such competency testing, with about 13% of physicians deemed unfit for the job.

Does placing a patient’s photograph in the EHR influence radiologist behavior?

Economic and psychological studies have shown that seeing an individual’s face can change one's actions—a dynamic relevant to rads who experience minimal patient interaction.

Most referrer requests for imaging are inadequate, new scoring system shows

Amid calls to reduce the rate of low-value imaging exams, experts have developed RI-RADS, a scoring system for rating imaging requests.

Outsourced radiology reports less thorough than in-house ones, researchers claim

Free-text reporting also was associated with significant omissions in abdominal anatomical structures, researchers detailed in the journal Cureus.

Effort to stop primary care providers from ordering low-value imaging hits brick wall

Researchers with the University of California, Davis, detailed their randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network Open Wednesday.

Quality

Covera Health to vet prostate MRI providers for ‘Radiology Centers of Excellence’

Sterile, temperature-controlled preservation reduces long-term mortality after heart transplant by 54%

American College of Radiology updates imaging appropriateness criteria with 11 new topics

Enhancing STAT radiology exam order efficiency to reduce turnaround time

5 EHR-based strategies to reduce CT turnaround times