The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) announce a new collaborative clinical data registry to support high-quality practice and patient care. The registry will allow collection and analysis of data on nuclear medicine procedures, supporting continuous improvement of patient care, SNMMI and ACR officials say.
“This synergistic partnership reaffirms the commitment of both organizations to provide the highest level of nuclear medicine care for our patients,” says Phillip Koo, MD, chair of SNMMI’s Quality Committee. “The initiative will support that goal through evidence-based practice improvements born from a data-rich registry.” The initiative will also facilitate reporting of quality performance to the federal government.
Don Yoo, MD, FACR, chair of the ACR Commission on Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, also spoke out about the collaboration, commenting: “Intersociety collaboration between the SNMMI and the ACR will be key to the future of nuclear medicine and practice improvements in the U.S. Both organizations are committed to this important data registry.”
The diagnostic interventional radiology/nuclear medicine component of the registry will be piloted in early 2019. Participating pilot sites will have access to the data for the duration of the pilot, including de-identified data from other participating sites, allowing practices to assess the quality of care they provide to patients. A joint Registry Committee will review requests for access to and use of the registry data for research, publication, quality improvement or other purposes.
Initially, the registry will focus on PET/CT imaging data. At a future date, the collaborative registry may expand to include quality measures focused on therapeutic aspects of nuclear medicine services.
