The American College of Radiology (ACR), founded in 1923, is a professional medical society representing nearly 40,000 diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians and medical physicists.
The ACR has 54 chapters in the United States, Canada and the Council of Affiliated Regional Radiation Oncology Societies (CARROS). [1]
The ACR has accredited more than 39,000 medical imaging facilities [2] in 10 imaging modalities since 1987, including:
The ACR Appropriateness Criteria (ACR AC) are evidence-based guidelines that assist referring physicians and other providers in making the most appropriate imaging or treatment decision for a specific clinical condition. The ACR AC includes 178 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with 912 clinical variants and over 1,550 clinical scenarios.[ citation needed]
ACR AC are available to all physicians via ACR Select, a module contained within CareSelect Imaging.
In creating the ACR AC, the ACR Task Force on Appropriateness Criteria incorporated attributes for developing acceptable medical practice guidelines used by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as designed by the Institute of Medicine.[ citation needed]
The ACR National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR) develops benchmarks and comparisons to help imaging facilities improve quality of patient care with its collection of registries related to a range of radiological procedures. The registries include:[ citation needed]
NRDR was approved as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for 2018 MIPS Reporting.[ citation needed]
The ACR provides patient information through the website Radiologyinfo.org, [7] co-produced by the Radiological Society of North America, to help patients understand how various radiology procedures and radiation therapy are performed.
ACR's Imaging 3.0 initiative is a roadmap to transition the practice of radiology from volume-based to value-based care. Four main focus areas of Imaging 3.0 include; [8]