Fiscal Year 2015 Top Accomplishments

Fiscal Year 2015 Top Accomplishments

Advocacy & Economics

  • Through ACR advocacy efforts, the College achieves key successes for the future of radiology:
  • Secures Medicare coverage of CT lung cancer screening exams
  • Works with allied societies to repeal flawed Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) payment formula with no imaging cuts to offset SGR repeal cost
  • Increases practice expense inputs for Medicare Physician Fee Schedule conversion from film to digital imaging
  • Spearheads professional component multiple procedure payment reduction repeal inclusion in House-passed 21st Century Cures Act
  • RADPAC® raises more than $1 million from more than 3,000 contributors, spending nearly $3 million in 2014 election cycle with 93% of RADPAC-supported candidates winning their races
  • ACR conducts Radiology Integrated Care Network annual survey to learn which members are working in alternative payment models and provide lessons learned as part of our Imaging 3.0™ initiative
  • To help increase adoption of value-based payments and alternative payment models, the College registers for the CMS Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network and encourages ACR members to also register and participate in this network
    • Playing an active role in the development of crucial regulations to successfully implement imaging clinical decision support systems which incorporate ACR Appropriateness Criteria® in the Medicare program

IT and Imaging Informatics

  • Launched the JACR® Imaging Informatics Resource Center, an online portal for radiologists to access critical information, expert guidance, and insights on Imaging Informatics
  • Launched online, simulation-based educational programs for medical students and residents on the ACR RCMS Learning Platform
  • Released ACRCommon (Common Radiology Terminology for Communication) and ACRConnect (Image Transfer Framework) expanding the Imaging 3.0™ Informatics toolkit

Education

Quality and Safety

Research

  • ACR Research and Innovation Center
    • Successfully supports diagnostic imaging and radiation oncology clinical trials and registries (funded by diverse public and private sponsors)
    • Over 800 research sites use the ACR TRIAD® platform to submit images and data
    • Successfully passes a full FDA audit contributing to approval of the sponsor’s therapeutic agent
    • Restructured the Research and Innovation Center to better meet the needs of sponsors and our partners in the National Clinical Trials Network
  • Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute™ 
    • Published (or had accepted for publication) 14 papers in scientific journals
    • Presented 36 lectures at scientific meetings, grand rounds and professional meetings
    • Launched a new website featuring the Neiman Almanac, an imaging information data tool, averaging over 3,000 page views per month
    • Celebrates CMO Richard Duszak Jr., MD, FACR, who received the 2014 Minnie for Most Influential Radiology Researcher; this campaign recognizes the best and brightest in medical imaging from AuntMinnie.com
  • ACR Head Injury Institute™ 
    • Awarded funding from the U.S. Navy to participate in a research study involving the neuroimaging of breachers (military and law enforcement personnel routinely exposed to low-level blasts during training and operations)

Membership Value