Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
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Opportunities for funded radiologic research are greater than ever, and the amount of federal funding coming to academic radiology departments is increasing. Even so, many medical school-based radiology departments have little or no research funding. ⋯ The consensus panel included radiologists who have leadership roles in some of the most well-funded research departments, radiologists who direct other funded research programs, and radiologists with related expertise. The goals of the consensus panel were to identify the attributes associated with successful research programs and to develop an action plan for radiology research on the basis of these characteristics.
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The overutilization of noninvasive diagnostic imaging (NDI) is a complex problem with many other aspects aside from self-referral. This article discusses (1) other causes of overutilization, (2) the rationales used by nonradiologist physicians to justify self-referring their patients for NDI, (3) the extent of self-referral by radiologists (called "autoreferral" by some), and (4) steps that could be taken to curb the overutilization of NDI in the United States. It is important for radiologists to be familiar with these issues and to support efforts to control overutilization.
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The ACR's Practice Guidelines, Technical Standards, and Appropriateness Criteria are useful tools in resident education. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is increasing its focus on assessing educational outcomes in resident education to ensure that graduating residents have achieved competence to the level expected of new practitioners. The Appropriateness Criteria can be used to educate residents in cost-effective imaging practice, while the Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards are useful tools for educating residents in patient care. Incorporating these ACR resources into the resident curriculum and the goals and objectives of the training program provides a means of addressing the new ACGME requirements.