Referral Guidelines in Radiology: Point of Care Advice

Abstract

Background: Referral guidelines are becoming more and more appreciated in health management primarily to optimize resource utilization. But in the case of medical imaging, the wise selection of the most appropriate study is also important from the patient’s safety perspective. However, the problem is not limited to the availability of guidelines. Even when they are already developed and published, their practical use should be feasible to improve health care. IT tools are important to bring the guidelines to the point of care and tailor the decision to the patient's problem. Objectives: By listening to this lecture, the audience is expected to: Outline: The most comprehensive repository of imaging referral guidelines is the appropriateness criteria developed by the American College of Radiology. There are other national or multinational collections of guidelines but no one is practical. There are IT tools to help practitioners select the best imaging procedure according to the guidelines and considering patient’s problems, including ACR Select and iGuide.