Dr. Ezequiel Silva III, ACR teleradiology taskforce chair, of University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
The American College of Radiology published new best-practice guidelines for teleradiology. The study was published on May 20, in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
The task force's guidelines offer recommendations that relate to work environment, services, payment and regulatory matters, and technologies specific to the teleradiology practice.
These recommendations also address challenges that are unique to teleradiology. For example, security concerns around the transmission of protected health information beyond a physical building are covered.
Transmitting an image to teleradiologists from a different state also requires extra consideration. Depending on their laws, different malpractice suits, credentialing, and regulations need to be recognized.
Essentially, ACR hopes to establish quality guidelines that hold teleradiology practices to more uniform standards. "The standards we would expect from a larger teleradiology company are what you would expect from a more traditional on-site radiology practice," ACR teleradiology task force chair Dr. Ezequiel Silva III, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, tells DOTmed News.
Teleradiology initially emerged in the 90s to capitalize on time zone differences. Teleradiologists working afternoons in Australia, for example, would cover the graveyard shift in the U.S., working to offer preliminary interpretations that would be confirmed in the morning with a final reading by a local staff member who bills to Medicare.
However, as the business model has evolved, domestic teleradiology has become increasingly common within the U.S., and similar companies are now responsible for final readings.
Though preliminary interpretations can be done without using prior studies, final readings put a greater level of responsibility on teleradiologists to provide a high quality of interpretation.
As teleradiology companies aggressively compete with traditional radiology companies, their business model has rapidly grown without the benefit of uniform guidelines and safeguards.
The task force expressed concern about these developments and advised the ACR to educate its members on best practices around teleradiology.
"All incentives and motivations for teleradiology should be patient-centered. Any secondary incentives should never supersede the importance of patient primacy," says Silva.
