The ABR's Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) program addresses Part IV requirements of Maintenance of Certification (MOC). For Diagnostic Radiology, including Vascular and Interventional Radiology, five categories of PQI projects have been defined:

• Patient safety
• Accuracy of interpretation
• Report turnaround time
• Practice guidelines and technical standards
• Referring physician surveys 

Each diagnostic radiologist decides on a project in one of these categories, working as an individual, within a department or a group, or associated with a national society.

The steps in the PQI project process are:

1. Learn about PQI process during year one
2. Select project and metrics
3. Collect baseline data
4. Analyze the data
5. Create improvement plan
6. Collect data, compare to initial data, summarize results

To assist you in this process, the RSNA Quality Improvement Committee formed a Work Group to create a number of PQI Projects that have since been qualified by the ABR. The following are the beginning of what we hope will be a growing library of projects and templates to help you meet the MOC Part IV requirement.

PQI Templates Newly Approved by the ABR

• Abdominal

    CT Dose Reduction in Abdominal CT Scanning
  Suitable for Group PQI
  Primary Authors: G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD; C. Daniel Johnson, MD; Jonathan B. Kruskal, MD, PhD

    Reader Performance in Evaluating Acute Appendicitis on Abdominal CT
  Suitable for Group PQI
  Primary Authors: G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD; C. Daniel Johnson, MD; Jonathan B. Kruskal, MD, PhD 

    Reader Performance in Predicting Resectability for Abdominal Malignancy
  Suitable for Group PQI
  Primary Authors: G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD; C. Daniel Johnson, MD; Jonathan B. Kruskal, MD, PhD

    Reducing Unnecessary Scan Acquisitions at Abdominal MRI
  Suitable for Group PQI
  Primary Authors: G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD; C. Daniel Johnson, MD; Jonathan B. Kruskal, MD, PhD

• Interventional

     Capturing Dose Indicators From Fluoroscopically-Guided Interventions
  Suitable for Individual or Group PQI
  Primary Authors: James R. Duncan, MD, PhD; Joseph R. Steele Jr., MD; David Hovsepian, MD 

• Neuroradiology

    Improving Outcomes for Patients with Acute Stroke Symptoms Through Structured Reporting of Brain CT and MRI 
  Suitable for Individual or Group PQI
  Primary Authors: Lucy W. Glenn, MD; Karl N. Krecke, MD; Donald F. Schomer, MD

    Standardized Reporting of Neck Adenopathy with the Accepted Nodal Classification Criteria
  Suitable for Individual or Group PQI
  Primary Authors: Lucy W. Glenn, MD; Karl N. Krecke, MD; Donald F. Schomer, MD

• Pediatric

    Reducing the Number of Inappropriate Babygrams Performed in the NICU
  Suitable for Individual PQI
  Primary Authors: Ellen M. Chung, MD; Rajesh Krishnamurthy, MD

• Thoracic

    Appropriate Utilization of a Low Dose Chest CT Nodule Protocol
  Suitable for Group PQI
  Primary Authors: Matthew D. Gilman, MD; Ella A. Kazerooni, MD, MS

    Standardized Reporting of CT Pulmonary Angiography for Acute Pulmonary Embolism
  Suitable for Individual or Group PQI
  Primary Authors: Matthew D. Gilman, MD; Ella A. Kazerooni, MD, MS

    Utilization of Comparison to Prior Relevant Imaging Studies 
  Suitable for Individual or Group PQI
  Primary Authors: Matthew D. Gilman, MD; Ella A. Kazerooni, MD, MS
  
   

Additional Templates for Use »

Following are links to the ABR Website that will provide instructions on performing Individual and Group PQI Projects, along with the reporting template for each.

• INDIVIDUAL PQI PROJECT INFORMATION 
• GROUP PQI PROJECT INFORMATION  

For more information please contact:
Fiona Miller, fmiller@rsna.org
Director, Department of Research