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Quality improvement initiative leads to reduction in unnecessary follow-up imaging

2014-04-01
(Press-News.org) The April issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR®) focuses on a variety of issues relating to clinical practice, practice management, health services and policy, and radiology education and training.

Articles include:

A Quality Improvement Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Follow-up Imaging for Adnexal Lesions Jamie S. Hui, M.D.; Dawna J. Kramer, M.D.; C. Craig Blackmore, M.D., M.P.H.; Beverly E. Hashimoto, M.D.; David L. Coy, M.D., Ph.D. Through a quality initiative aimed at improving sonographic characterization and imaging triage of adnexal cystic lesions identified at ultrasound, investigators effectively reduced unnecessary imaging at their institution and increased confidence in characterizing certain lesions as physiologic or benign.

Implementation of Speech Recognition in a Community-based Radiology Practice: Effect on Report Turnaround Times Luciano M. Prevedello, M.D., M.P.H.; Stephen Ledbetter, M.D., M.P.H.; Cameron Farkas; Ramin Khorasani, M.D., M.P.H. Speech recognition software can be successfully implemented in a community hospital that has no radiology trainees, and its implementation may yield multiple-fold improvement in radiology report turnaround times.

The Potential Impact of Accountable Care Organizations With Respect to Cost and Quality With Special Attention to Imaging Suresh K. Mukherji, M.D., M.B.A.
Initial results of the institutions participating in the CMS Physician Group Demonstration Project did not demonstrate a substantial reduction in imaging that could be directly attributed to the ACO model.

Radiology Practice Environment: Options, Variations and Differences — A Report of the ACR Commission on Human Resources Sharon C. Dutton, M.D., M.P.H.; Gordon K. Sze, M.D.; Philip L. Lund, M.D.; Edward I. Bluth, M.D.
This article describes the different types of practice options available to radiologists, examines many of the issues related to radiology practice today and may provide guidance to radiologists choosing a preferred work environment.

Who Owns the Image? Archiving and Retention Issues in the Digital Age Jonathan L. Mezrich, M.D., J.D., M.B.A., L.L.M.; Eliot Siegel, M.D.
Ownership rights to diagnostic images rest not in patients but in the facilities that generate them; patients generally have very limited rights to inspect and copy such records and typically may not have control over imaging with respect to educational, quality or research uses.

INFORMATION: For additional information, or to schedule an interview with a JACR spokesperson, please contact Heather Williams at 703-390-9822 or PR@acr.org.


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[Press-News.org] Quality improvement initiative leads to reduction in unnecessary follow-up imaging