ACR eases continuing experience accreditation

The American College of Radiology (ACR) has reduced the number of cross-sectional studies radiologists must read to satisfy ACR’s continuing experience accreditation requirement for CT, MRI and ultrasound, while also making its organ specific requirement more explicit for each modality.

Under the previous continuing experience requirement for supervising and/or interpreting CT, MRI and ultrasound exams: “Upon renewal, physicians must have read an average of nine exams per month for each modality over the prior 36-month period.”

In response to concerns raised by several ACR members, the organization redefined and divided the continuing experience requirement into two possibilities:

• “Upon renewal, physicians reading exams across multiple organ systems must have read 200 exams over the prior 36 months; OR

• For physicians reading organ system specific exams (i.e., body, abdominal, musculoskeletal, head) across multiple modalities, they must read a minimum of 60 organ system specific exams per modality (CT, MRI or ultrasound) in 36 months. However, they must read a total of 200 cross-sectional imaging (MRI, CT, PET/CT and ultrasound) studies over the prior 36 month period.”

 
Whereas the previous criterion mandated a total of 324 non-modality or organ specific exams, the new requirement demands 200 non-organ specific exams, with 60 additional exams required per modality for physicians reading organ system specific studies.

ACR said that double-reading and reinterpretations of images read by other physicians count towards accreditation, as will RADPEER and other peer review programs.