The American College of Radiology said Thursday it launched a dose index registry, where imaging facilities can submit anonymized dose reports for CT exams.

The index lets facilities compare their CT dose indices against regional and national values, with ACR providing regular feedback reports. The aim of the project is to help facilities provide the lowest optimal dose, ACR said.

"Right now, many facilities may know their dose levels, but not how those relate to other practices or national benchmarks," Dr. John A. Patti, chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors, said in a statement. "The Dose Index Registry helps imaging providers gauge how effective their dose optimization efforts are by continuously supplying measurement of their dose over time."
The registry is part of ACR's National Radiology Data Registry, which also tracks data for virtual colonoscopies, general radiology, mammography and other exams.

ACR said because of software compatibility issues between vendors and facilities, the group teamed up with Integrating Healthcare Enterprise to establish the Radiation Exposure Monitoring Profile. This lets vendors collect and transmit CT-dose information in appropriate formats. Patient identifiers are scrubbed from reports to protect privacy, ACR said.

Registering with the NRDR has a one-time fee of $500, and also includes annual fees based on the number of radiologists at the practice. To register or learn more, visit https://nrdr.acr.org/

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