ACR Bulletin

Covering topics relevant to the practice of radiology

Dispatches July 2024

Lung cancer screening education, 2025 ACRF Global Humanitarian Award applications, ACR Medical Student Section resource guide and more.
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The HPI aims to continue to grow the CEC with new features, including community data points, access to care and additional years of data.

July 02, 2024
  • Sign Up for Lung Cancer Screening Education
  • Medical Students Urged to Update Email Addresses to Ensure Delivery of ACR Member-Only Benefits
  • HHS Claims Radiology Providers Are Not Responsible for Breach Notifications After Change Cyberattack
  • 2025 ACRF Global Humanitarian Award Application Now Open
  • The Number of Medical Practices with Affiliated Radiologists Are Decreasing
  • HPI Introduces Cancer Equity Compass
  • Connect With Hiring Employers at a Live Event
  • ACR's Medical Student Section Releases Free Resource Guide

Sign Up for Lung Cancer Screening Education

Learn how to implement a patient-centered lung cancer screening program with the ACR Lung CT Screening Reporting Data System (Lung-RADS®). Accessing this program is free and participating could earn you up to 15 CME credits. The ACR’s Lung Cancer Screening education program will prepare you to apply a patient-centered approach to decision making mixed with best practices and will help you meet requirements for ACR CT Chest Accreditation.

Access this program today.


Medical Students Urged to Update Email Addresses to Ensure Delivery of ACR Member-Only Benefits

Did you recently graduate from medical school? 

Many institutions discontinue alumni email addresses a few months after graduation. If you are a recent medical school graduate and your ACR account is associated with your school email address, you must update your email to continue to receive and access member-only benefits. To update your email address and ACR login, please visit the ACR website

Need assistance? Contact the ACR support team.


HHS Claims Radiology Providers Are Not Responsible for Breach Notifications After Change Cyberattack

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that the payment processing firm, not imaging groups, is responsible for notifying healthcare consumers and the media about the Change Healthcare cyberattack. The ACR joined the American Society of Neuroradiology, the Society of Interventional Radiology and others in writing to the HHS about concerns regarding their members being responsible for notifying those impacted on May 20

The HHS determined that only Change Healthcare is responsible for notifying patients, government officials and the media. They also distributed an updated frequently asked questions document detailing this point. It is still unclear how many radiology groups and patients were affected by the cyberattack. 

Read the whole story.


2025 ACRF Global Humanitarian Award Application Now Open

The Global Humanitarian Award (GHA) recognizes outstanding individuals, organizations and programs working to improve access to and equitable delivery of quality radiological services to areas of need throughout the world. The World Health Organization estimates that half of the world’s population lacks access to radiological services.

Winners will be recognized at the 2025 ACR Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Awards are given in three categories: individuals, organizations (including non-profit and industry groups) and non-radiologists (including medical physicists, radiologic technologists, ultrasonographers and other radiological personnel). The application deadline is Aug. 31, 2024. Apply today.

Questions? Contact Meredith Amos, ACR governance and member services coordinator.


News from the HPI

The Number of Medical Practices with Affiliated Radiologists Are Decreasing

The Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute® (HPI) released the results of a new study that focused on consolidation patterns of practices with radiologists from 2014 to 2023. The study found that despite the number of radiologists increasing by 17.3% (30,723 to 26,024), the number of medical practices with at least one affiliated radiologists has decreased by 14.7% (5,059 to 4,313). The average number of radiologists associated with these medical practices increased from 9.7 to 17.9, according to the study.

Roughly half of radiologists are in radiology-only practices with the other half in multispecialty practices. “Our study inferred how consolidation is occurring by examining radiologists’ practice affiliations before compared with after their prior practice ceased   . Radiologists affiliated with radiology-only practices with 1-2 radiologists that ceased were most often (70.5%) associated with another, larger radiology-only practice. In comparison, 54.7% of radiologists affiliated with radiology-only practices with 50+ radiologists that ceased were next affiliated with a no-majority-specialty practice,” said Jay Parikh, MD, co-author and professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

If you would like to schedule an interview with an HPI spokesperson, please contact Nichole Gonzalez, HPI business & media manager. 

Read the press release.


HPI Introduces Cancer Equity Compass

The Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute® (HPI) announced the release of the Cancer Equity Compass/Atlas (CEC), a tool that can reveal the overlap between cancer disparities and social determinants of health (SDOH) through advanced heat maps of counties in the United States. The goal of the CEC is to accomplish equitable health outcomes in underserved populations.

Maps featured in the CEC display the correlation between key cancer disparities, such as screening, prevalence and mortality rates, and 16 SDOH measures, including education, income and minority rates. The tool utilizes the full U.S. view to identify geographical patterns in certain regions of the county. Maps in the CEC cover breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers, the four most common cancers with around one million new cases every year. The primary purpose of the CEC is to identify SDOH factors that may result in disparities and inequities within a community. 

The HPI aims to continue to grow the CEC with new features, including community data points, access to care and additional years of data.

Visit the HPI website to access the CEC. Read the press release.


Connect With Hiring Employers at a Live Event

The ACR Virtual Career Fair will be held on Aug. 14, 5 – 8 p.m. ET for job seekers looking to connect with employers. Meet one-on-one through chat, audio or video platforms with employers seeking to fill job vacancies. Job seekers are encouraged to register and attend the three-hour event. 

This event allows you to upload your CV and schedule chats with potential employers at your leisure. Registrants can meet with as many employers as they choose or have time to engage. There is no deadline for registration.

Register now.


ACR’s Medical Student Section Releases Free Resource Guide

The ACR’s Medical Student Section (MSS) has been busy creating new resources to make it easier for their peers to find radiology material to augment their medical education. Check out the new guide for a list of free resources medical students can utilize while studying radiology for their anatomy courses. 

Watch for more resources developed by medical students for medical students. 

Author Alexander Utano,  associate editor, ACR Press