American College of Radiology

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has renewed the status of the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR) as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry. With the renewal, radiology professionals can continue to use the NRDR to meet quality reporting requirements under the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS).

The sixth Image Wisely Radiation Safety Case —Optimizing Radiation Use During a Difficult IVC Filter Retrieval — is now available to help radiologists, imaging technologists and medical physicists to assess their understanding of important radiation safety concepts — including dose monitoring and optimization. This is the latest in a series of free, online and mobile-compatible Image Wisely educational offerings, developed with the assistance of the American College of Radiology (ACR).

Breast density may be one of the strongest predictors of the failure of mammography to detect cancer, according to an educational session presented at the 2014 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference in December. The topic of breast density was a prominent one at the meeting, and many healthcare providers are beginning to look beyond just using traditional mammography to assess whether or not a woman has breast cancer. The push for additional screening is becoming prevalent, and many states are enacting laws that require women to be notified if they have dense breast tissue and what that means in terms of the ability to accurately find cancer.

Cardiac imaging accounts for about one-third of the source of X-ray radiation dose for all medical imaging. Expanding use of computed tomography (CT) for cardiac evaluations, use of nuclear imaging for myocardial perfusion exams and more complex transcatheter procedures in the cath lab have all increased patient exposure in recent years. 

A set of guidelines developed to help standardized lung cancer screening would have generated considerably fewer false-positives than the National Lung Screening Trial produced, according to a new retrospective study.