The American College of Radiology issued the latest update to its influential imaging appropriateness criteria on Tuesday, aiming to aid providers in properly ordering exams.
ACR outlined revisions to 11 of its existing criteria, along with four new topics that it did not previously address. The latter included guidance related to abnormal liver function tests, congenital or acquired heart disease, dialysis fistula malfunction, and both staging and assessment of head and neck cancer.
First introduced in 1993, the appropriateness criteria now cover a total of 227 topics, 1,080 clinical variants, and 3,000 different scenarios. A panel of experts in both diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology compiled the recommendations, hoping to help referrers and other providers to appropriately select services.
The criteria meet the requirements spelled out in the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, which stipulates that providers must use such a decision aid before ordering radiology services for Medicare patients, ACR noted.
Find more details on the update here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.