When it comes to quality improvement, your radiology practice or institution doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel to deliver top-notch patient care, improve outcomes and increase efficiency. Because many practices are facing the same quality improvement (QI) challenges, what they have learned (and continue to learn) through their own self-assessments and goal setting can smoothen the road to success.

Enter the ACR Learning Network. Launched in 2022 to improve diagnostic imaging care through a learning health systems approach, the program supports teams at participating sites who are working together to solve similar problems. In turn, participants learn from one another throughout their QI journey as they apply improvement-driven measures, collect baseline data and receive guidance on identifiable areas of focus. The network supports a host of collaboratives — Lung Cancer Screening, Mammography Positioning, Prostate MR Image Quality and Recommendations Follow-up — and will soon expand its focus areas to include CT Dose Optimization and Mammography Health Equity.

Measuring Equitable Access

The Mammography Health Equity Improvement Collaborative is breaking new ground in the Learning Network’s QI arena and will help participating sites set goals to reduce breast cancer disparities by considering access to routine mammography prevention services through the lens of health equity. “This new arm under the Learning Network will focus on health equity with the goal of reducing breast cancer disparities by improving access to screening,” says Anand Narayan, MD, PhD, associate professor and vice chair of equity at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and chair of the ACR Patient- and Family-Centered Care Commission’s Committee on Outreach. “We will use the quality improvement tools and all the knowledge of Learning Network participants to support the collaborative’s health equity objective and to promote collaborative relationships between healthcare providers, patients and families.”

We will use the quality improvement tools and all the knowledge of Learning Network participants to support the collaborative's health equity objective and to promote collaborative relationships between healthcare providers, patients and families.

Participating sites follow a structured process, starting with identifying the problems they are trying to solve. For the new Mammography Health Equity Improvement Collaborative, the problem boils down to healthcare disparities in the use of mammographic screening programs by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) priority patient populations. This may lead to missed opportunities for early cancer detection and management. Next, participants must determine how they will measure success. For this collaborative, it is by increasing the percentage of eligible patients who get a screening mammogram within specific AHRQ priority populations. Recent studies commissioned by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) suggest that breast cancer mortality disparities can be substantially reduced by increasing access to mammography screening.

Gaining New Perspectives

“The Learning Network is about more than just improving your process; it is about improving your culture and community with trust, relationships and commitment, both in your organization and across others,” says Kandice Garcia Tomkins, QI director for the ACR Learning Network. One Learning Network participant says, “The ACR Learning Network gives you the opportunity to look at a QI project from a different perspective — sparking creativity and fostering new connections along the way.”

In preparation for joining the Learning Network, organizations participate in ImPower, a program that combines QI education with the direct application of QI tools to projects. Your interdisciplinary team becomes an analytical problem-solving machine. Each ImPower cohort offers different improvement collaboratives, each guided by committees, quality improvement leaders and clinical subject matter experts. “The ACR Learning Network empowers teams to make meaningful improvements through structured QI guidance,” says Kay Zacharias-Andrews, administrative director for the ACR Learning Network. “ImPower is all about education, project management and collaboration.”

Join the ACR’s Learning Network measure discussion series to evaluate your team’s level of performance in a topic area. By participating, you will learn how to apply improvement-driven measures, collect baseline data and receive guidance in identifying areas of focus. A Learning Network program overview video is available if you would like to learn more. Fill out the form today to kickstart the process and put your organization on the road to excellence. 

Related Reading

• “In It for the Long Haul” highlights the importance of technologists and patient positioning in mammography.
• From the JACR^®, The ACR Learning Network: Facilitating Local Performance Improvement Through Shared Learning, examines the viability of the Learning Network model in radiology.
• “Collaborating on Quality,” the first in a series of articles, showcasing standout quality improvement projects on prostate MR imaging, mammography positioning, lung screening, follow-up recommendations and more.
• “Following Patients Through Incidental Findings” explores how Hudson Valley Radiologists fine-tuned its follow-up recommendations through the ACR Learning Network.
• “Volume and Value: The Future of Lung Cancer Screening” delves into the ACR Learning Network’s approach to higher lung cancer screening rates through shared experiences