Appropriate Use Criteria
Throughout the past decade, as imaging has continued to be increasingly integral to best practices in health care diagnosis and treatment, appropriate use criteria guidelines related to imaging have expanded significantly. Appropriate use criteria ensures that imaging providers are using physician developed-based guidelines to drive patient care decisions. In fact, leading private health systems are currently using or piloting appropriate use criteria to guide utilization and a 2009 study published in the Journal of Radiology confirms that when clinically tested appropriate use criteria is integrated into physicians’ practices, the use of imaging equipment and associated costs are significantly reduced while still ensuring patients have access to the services they need.
It is essential to promote policies such as appropriate use criteria that have already been developed and proven effective to ensure proper utilization of medical imaging technology without undercutting patient access and quality of care.
