Arl Van Moore, Jr, MD, chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors, expressed the College's ongoing determination to ensure that patient safety and quality of care are maintained as the practice of international teleradiology becomes more widespread in a June 4 Los Angeles Times article.

The article cites Moore's work as chair of the ACR's Task Force on International Teleradiology and the ACR white paper on the issue which demands that radiologists interpreting images outside the United States meet the same educational and professional standards as those here in the United States.

The article states, "The American College of Radiology was so concerned about outsourcing that it formed a task force to examine the potential challenges and pitfalls of using doctors outside the United States. It issued a report in February 2005, including guidelines that specify that consulting radiologists be licensed in the state in which they practice and credentialed at the hospitals receiving their reports."


Moore is quoted in the article as stating, "The expectation of our patients in the United States ... would be [to] have a level of training that was equal to or equivalent to the accepted standard throughout the country,"

The article also states, "Moore and other radiologists also fear the prospect of 'ghost reading,' in which a board-certified radiologist sets up shop with foreign-trained doctors and just rubber-stamps their readings as his own."

Moore is quoted as saying, "It's very hard to monitor day to day what's going on if a person's a world away..."

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