American Society of Neuroradiology

ASNR Practice Quality Improvement (PQI)

Practice Quality Improvement Requirement For Maintenance Of Certification:

General Information
Example PQI project
Sample Referring Physician Survey
Alternate approach to the project
PQI Listserv
Helpful Links

General Information

The American Board of Radiology (ABR) requires delegates to participate in a Practice Quality Improvement Project in order to meet maintenance of certification (MOC) Part IV requirements. As a benefit to our members, ASNR provides resources to assist in the fulfillment of these requirements, including general information and a sample project of implementing a standardized nomenclature for MR of Lumbar Disk Disease and referring physician survey to measure the impact of the initiative.

In general PQI Projects broadly conform to the following template. Select a topic and decide what you will measure to assess current performance and future improvement. A data collection form is usually needed to record the measurements

  • Make a baseline measurement in an appropriate number of cases
  • Analyze results
  • Identify the potential causes of error or suboptimal performance
  • Develop a written improvement plan
  • Implement the plan
  • Re-measure: Determine whether or not you have met your performance goal; if so, select another project to start, while maintaining the gains made in the initial project; if not, continue with the initial project.

ABR suggested PQI topics include:

Patient Safety
Clinical Practice Guidelines*
Accuracy of Interpretation - double read (RadPEER)
Referring physician surveys*
Report timeliness and Critical Value Reporting
Quality awareness

* To view an example PQI project based on click here »

Helpful Links

The following links also provide useful information regarding the PQI requirement for maintenance of certification.

ABR - http://www.theabr.org/MOC_PQI_General.htm
ACR - http://www.acr.org/SecondaryMainMenuCategories/quality_safety/radpeer.aspx
RSNA - http://www.rsna.org/Education/MOC/practice_quality_improvement.cfm
ARRS - http://pqi.arrs.org/