The 2022 ACR Annual Conference on Quality and Safety, held Oct. 20–22, took place in person for the first time since 2019. The meeting brought together more than 250 quality improvement professionals who participated in sessions and discussions about aligning their practice operations with the latest trends in medical imaging, explored new informatics and decision support solutions for optimal reporting and patient outcomes, and connected with like-minded colleagues across the quality community. A diverse range of speakers — from physicians to patient advocates to technologists and more — covered critical quality topics, including the patient experience in operational improvement, the use of video radiology reports to improve patient-centered radiology, and the impact of AI on clinical decision support, to name just a few.

Here are a few highlights from the 2022 ACR Q&S Conference that I want to call out:

The opening keynote address, “Harmonizing the Drivers of Value-based Care Transformation: Professionalism, Provider-Led Performance Improvement, Payers and Policy Makers,” was delivered by Pamela T. Johnson, MD, FACR. The vice-chair of quality and safety at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Department of Radiology challenged attendees to broaden their perspectives to all outcomes and realize that radiologists, through their work, can improve longitudinal outcomes and save downstream costs. Dr. Johnson’s keynote urged attendees to discover high-value operational improvement strategies, such as making a business case for health equity and operationalizing quality improvement.

The “Lessons Learned From the National Contrast Shortage” workshop session challenged attendees to ask the critical question, “Are we better prepared for the next supply chain disruption?” While the contrast shortage emergency of the summer seems to have abated, the lessons may be applied to the next major shortage, whatever it may be and whenever it may occur. COVID-19 has taught us that supply chains are very fragile, and while just-in-time inventory for healthcare-related items may make some business sense, it may have unintended consequences. The session was expertly conducted by Pranay Krishnan, MD, vice chair for operations, quality, and safety and director of CT at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and Helise R. Coopersmith, MD, vice chair of quality for Northwell Health Radiology. The doctors urged attendees to ask the questions, “What data was required for real-time monitoring? Did new dashboards/databases need to be created to facilitate this monitoring? How were all decisions regarding management of the shortage communicated? Will we do better with the next crisis?”

While planning is already underway for the 2023 ACR Annual Conference on Quality and Safety, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the ACR Q&S staff and program co-chairs Ben Wandtke, MD, MS, MMM, vice chair of quality and safety at University of Rochester Medical Center, and Shlomit A. Goldberg-Stein, MD, associate professor of radiology with the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health, as well as David B. Larson, MD, MBA, FACR, chair of the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety and vice chair for education and clinical operations at Stanford University. The team planned a spectacular conference centered on quality improvement in radiology, at a time when value cannot be overemphasized!