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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Bills to expand nonphysicians’ scope of practice ‘rampant’ across US, American College of Radiology says

ACR labeled one recently opposed bill in South Dakota as "harmful" and "dangerous," with similar measures in the works elsewhere. 

Providers still routinely using unnecessary imaging to diagnose mild traumatic brain injury

There is little value in deploying CT, MRI or X-ray to diagnose mTBI, experts note, and it may instead result in harm and excess costs.

breast radiologist breast cancer mammography

Breast MR imaging a possible barrier to timely surgery following cancer diagnosis

Providers must be aware of age and how it impacts a patient’s care pathway after an MRI or other scan, experts wrote in JAMA Surgery. 

cardiologist doctor physician patient black diverse hypertension

Black patients more likely to experience dialysis graft failure, costly repercussions

When rads are forced to repeat such procedures within 30 days, patients can experience increased risk of death, alongside the added burden to the health system, experts wrote in Radiology.

7 steps to ‘new era of personalized medicine’ by way of radiomic analysis

Quantifiable features of medical images such as pixel intensity, arrangement, color and texture—in a word, radiomics—can help radiologists improve diagnostic accuracy.

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Targeting ‘super referrers’ a promising strategy for quashing low-value imaging

Less than 1% of referrers accounted for 10% of exam orders that defy Choosing Wisely recommendations, according to a new analysis of imaging data. 

Internal surgery patients with infectious complications shown not to benefit by extra CT

Thoracic CT is safely and wisely omitted from diagnostic protocols for ICU patients who have signs of infection after abdominopelvic surgery but were already imaged with abdominal CT.

Homegrown tracking boosts follow-up imaging for incidental findings of uncertain gravity

A structured program to track incidental findings on body CT has significantly boosted rates of clinician follow-up as well as timely patient adherence to radiologist recommendations for next exams.

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Around the web

Health Imaging
Nearly $800,000 settlement offered to family of man who died during MRI exam

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

Cardiovascular Business
Global shortage of nuclear imaging isotopes may be over

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

Cardiovascular Business
‘A huge win’: CMS significantly increases Medicare payments for cardiac CT

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.