Protecting Reimbursements
An ACR-led coalition of over 100 physician and nonphysician organizations headed off scheduled Medicare payment reductions — resulting in more than $83 million reclaimed for radiologists in 2024.
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ACR Impact Report 2024Success in a Changing World
Through efforts shaping healthcare policy, tireless advocacy, groundbreaking research, convenient educational offerings and a commitment to successfully implementing new technologies — ACR® has your back.
The Impact Report is brought to you by the ACR Bulletin.
Artificial Intelligence
The integration of AI into radiology has the potential to enhance diagnostic accuracy, improve workflow efficiency and ultimately lead to better patient outcomes. ACR has established pioneering initiatives to harness the power of AI for radiologists.
- In June 2024, ACR announced the launch of ARCH-AI, the first national AI quality assurance program for radiology facilities. ARCH-AI established guidelines for AI use in imaging interpretation and ensures radiology facilities are using AI safely and effectively.
- In November 2024, ACR launched ASSESS-AI, the first quality registry for AI. ASSESS-AI allows ongoing monitoring of AI algorithm performance by capturing real-world data during clinical use at participating sites.
- Healthcare AI Challenge is a first-of-its-kind interactive virtual environment that enables ACR members to experience, compare, and evaluate the world’s most advanced generative AI medical imaging solutions in an engaging, gamefied platform.
Advocacy
Medicare Coverage for CTC
After more than 15 years of advocacy efforts by the ACR, CMS finalized Medicare coverage for screening CT colonography in 2024. This expansion of covered screening tools is a major achievement to help with early detection of the disease.
Scope of Practice
ACR stopped harmful Scope of Practice expansion legislation in 20 states in 2024. The fight for proper supervision and interpretation of imaging exams by trained radiologists continues, with the ACR state government relations team monitoring hundreds of additional pieces of legislation.
Taking on the Workforce Shortage
To address the workforce shortage in radiology, ACR advocated for legislation to increase the number of Medicare-supported Graduate Medical Education residency positions and took on barriers to visa authorization for international medical graduates.
ACR Chapters
- ACR has chapters in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada — plus CARROS, a chapter for radiation oncology members.
- The ACR tracked 220+ pieces of legislation related to Scope of Practice — and worked with chapters in 38 states and Puerto Rico on related legislation.
- The ACR monitored 400+ state radiology-related bills in 47 states and territories.
Economics
ACR presented a total of 22 new or revised codes to the AMA/RUC for valuation — including six new codes for MR Examination Safety Procedures. These new codes capture the extensive work that goes into clearing a patient with an implanted device for an MR procedure, which is currently not reimbursable.
ACR cosponsored 16 code change applications to ensure fair reimbursement for radiology procedures, which included 80 new CPT Category I codes, seven new Category III codes and 19 revised existing codes.
2024 CPT Coding Resources include updates on ultrasound and nuclear medicine coding, breast imaging coding FAQs and ACR/SIR interventional radiology coding.
ACR presented action plans for 35 CPT codes to the AMA’s Relativity Assessment Workgroup to ensure fair reimbursement for our members.
We Are ACR
21,156
Practicing members
15,006
Members-in-training
6,950
Retired members
156
ACR Fellows inducted at ACR 2024
2,000+
Member volunteers
250+
ACR commissions and committees
Get InvolvedVolunteer Link
The ACR launched Volunteer Link to connect more members with volunteer opportunities that fit their interests, expertise and availability.
Residents and Young Radiology Professionals
- The ACR Institute for Radiologic Pathology™ (AIRP®) offers a unique radiology training experience for residents, fellows and practicing radiologists. In 2024, 1,507 attendees enrolled in the four-week courses and 112 in the categorical courses. AIRP received 1,300 case submissions.
- In 2024, 3,509 residents at 196 radiology residency programs used RadExam, 4,678 residents at 249 radiology residency programs used DXIT™, and 595 residents at 85 radiation oncology programs used TXIT™.
- In 2024, there were seven Resident and Fellow Section (RFS) committees and/or subcommittees. Over 120 residents and fellows served on 68 ACR commissions and committees.
- The ACR Young and Early Career Professional Section (YPS) represents more than 6,000 ACR members under the age of 40 or within eight years of the completion of training. In 2024, the YPS expanded its resources in education and career training, fellowships, chapter engagement, volunteer opportunities and more.
Medical Students
The ACR Medical Student Section is dedicated to creating resources to educate and provide insight to encourage medical students to consider radiology as a career path.
- In 2024, there were six medical student specific committees and subcommittees. More than 50 medical students served on 14 ACR commissions and committees.
- Radiology-TEACHES®, clinical decision-support education built on evidence-based content, relaunched in 2024 with an easier-to-use, more interactive format.
- The ACR Pipeline Initiative for the Enrichment of Radiology completed its seven-week virtual program, providing mentorship and education to 40 scholars.
New and Improvedacr.org
Two years in the making — and reflecting great feedback from members during the redesign — the College has unveiled the new acr.org. The website launched in January with ease of use and enhanced user experience top of mind.
Quality & Safety
- ACR published 14 new and 24 revised Appropriateness Criteria®, with a total of 247 documents with more than 1,200 clinical variants and 4,000 clinical scenarios to ensure appropriate image ordering.
- Developed 39 Practice Parameters and Technical Standards documents (three new, 36 revised) with a total of 168 Practice Parameters and 18 Technical Standards.
- The International Recognition for Quality & Safety launched in 2024, a program that recognizes non-U.S. imaging centers who operate with a commitment to quality practices and patient safety.
- In 2024, the ACR released revised versions of the Manual on Contrast Media and Manual on MR Safety, and a new Nuclear Medicine QC Manual.
- The ACR continued to accredit and support over 37,000 entities in 2024 to ensure high-quality patient care.
Access Q&S resources — including what’s new with quality measurements, the National Radiology Data Registry, RADPEER™ and Imaging-RADS.
ACR Learning Network
The ACR Learning Network and ImPower program enjoyed continued success in 2024 with 21 teams and more than 200 participants across six Learning Network collaboratives. Get your team involved.
I've been a part of many process improvement projects over the years, but I've not been a part of any project that accomplished so much in so little time. This is foundational work that is going to reflect in so many other parts of our service line — a tremendous accomplishment.
Continuing Medical Education
Case in Point
Case in Point® is one of the most popular ACR benefits that members rely on daily. For 2024, more than 673,454 cases were completed, with an average of 3,150 readers per month and 168,188 CME credits awarded.
Explore Case in Point
Continuous Professional Improvement (CPI)
CPI released two new modules: CPI Editor’s Choice 2024: Breast Imaging and CPI Emergency & Trauma Imaging 2024.
Explore CPI
CPI learners claimed 26,174 CME credits.
ACR Education Center
Visit the ACR Education Center and check out the ACR course catalog for information on all the College’s educational offerings.
Explore all courses
234,129 CME credits awarded in 2024
Your Career Partner
ACR is here to help you chart a course for your career, with resources for every stage of practice.
ACR Career
Center
Access resources for job seekers and employers. The Career Center posted 15,899 jobs in 2024.
Explore
Radiology Leadership
Institute
The Radiology Leadership Institute® offers flexible training options to coach you through every career stage and tackle common workforce challenges.
Learn moreThanks to my participation in the RLI, I have been able to diversify my career, continue to grow and learn as a radiologist and give back to our radiology community.
Publications
Last year, the ACR Publications Team expanded its online-only coverage of hot-button issues — AI, reimbursement, the importance of screening and patient-centered care — plus new features, including:
- A multipart ACR Bulletin article series on the radiology workforce, examining how managing the crisis will require a shift in practice.
- A curation of radiology news and analysis through ramped up social media efforts (@ACRBulletin) and with Resonance on LinkedIn — with breaking news and scholarly research from the JACR.
- A new Medical Student Perspectives column, with articles by medical students who share their outlook on the challenges and opportunities within radiology.
ACR has strengthened member communication and education through outstanding publications, webinars and podcasts.
Research
Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute® (HPI)
- HPI addressed ACR members’ priority issues with 27 peer-reviewed papers on key topics, including reimbursement declines and inflation, practice consolidation, nonphysician provider scope of practice, radiation oncology bundled payments, MIPS challenges for radiologists and the interventional radiologist workforce.
- In 2024, HPI introduced its Cancer Disparities Maps — an interactive tool that identifies county-level disparities in cancer screening, prevalence and mortality with an overlay of the most pressing community determinants.
ACR Center for Research and Innovation (CRI)
- ACR CRI manages and operates Alzheimer’s Network for Treatment and Diagnosis (ALZ-NET), the first real-world data registry for evaluating the safety and outcomes of new Alzheimer’s disease treatments. CRI has rapidly expanded ALZ-NET participating sites and imaging centers — enrolling more than 1,000 patients.
- ACR CRI provided the core infrastructure needed to conduct the largest randomized breast cancer screening study in decades, which completed enrollment of 108,508 women in 2024. The Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial features one of the most diverse populations of any breast cancer screening trial and will assist radiologists in improving the process of identifying women at high risk for developing cancer.
- ACR research staff and radiation oncologists in RTOG conducted cutting edge trials comparing outcomes of proton and photon therapy to improve outcomes for patients battling cancer.
Patient- and Family-Centered Care
The third National Lung Cancer Screening Day (LCS) took place on Nov. 9, with 688 sites signing on to participate.
Find all the LCS resources you need for safe, effective lung cancer screening with the latest research, toolkits and key patient information.
In 2024, ACR released 20 new patient-friendly video animations — with 59,377 total views and 388 hours of viewing time.
There are 16 animations for healthcare professionals in the Healthcare Professional Information Series.
ACR has expanded its collection of Appropriateness Criteria Patient-Friendly Summaries to further engage patients and promote shared decision-making.
Radiology Health EquityCoalition
The Coalition sponsored the 2024 Communities Crushing Cancer annual event, in which radiology residents connect with patients and communities to promote cancer screening and early detection. This collaborative initiative included more than 200 residents from 40 programs across the U.S. in 2024.
Financial Stewardship
The ACR is among the nation’s most financially sound medical associations. Assets are allocated and invested optimally to provide the most value to members.
- The ACR Investment Portfolio has nearly tripled in the last 10 years.
- A strategic initiatives fund supports high-value projects. In 2024, this included the redesign of acr.org, launching new AI initiatives (including AI Central and Assess-AI) and developing Volunteer Link.
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Connect with nearly 42,000 ACR members and make your voice heard.
Sharpen Your Skills
Take advantage of educational opportunities to propel your career.