About Us

The Commission on Patient- and Family-Centered Care (CPFCC) works to ensure high-quality, radiologic care is provided in a manner that incorporates the needs, wants and values of our patients and communities and leads to improved healthcare satisfaction. The CPFCC works collaboratively within the ACR, particularly with the Informatics, Economics and Quality and Safety Commissions, and outside the organization with patient-centered care organizations and professional medical societies for system-wide patient-centered outcomes. The commission promotes constructive relationships between radiologists, their patients, families and communities to support radiology participation in emerging alternative payment models.

The Commission on Patient- and Family-Centered Care has several committees, all focused on specific areas and programs with PFCC:

  • Economics
  • Education
    • ACR Creative Expressions
  • Outreach
  • Patient Engagement
  • Population Health
    • Lung Cancer Screening Steering Committee
  • Quality Experience

Get involved in one of our committees. Use this web form to contact us.
 

Leadership

Krishnaraj Headshot

Arun Krishnaraj, MD, MPH

Chair, ACR PFCC Commission
Associate Professor of Radiology, Vice Chair, Quality and Safety, Director, Division of Body Imaging, University of Virginia Health
Tessa Cook

Tessa S. Cook, MD, PhD

Vice Chair, ACR PFCC Commission
Director, 3-D and Advanced Imaging Laboratory; Director, Center for Practice Transformation in Radiology; Fellowship Director, Imaging Informatics; Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

PFCC Committees

  • The Economics Committee has performed analysis and research on a number of topics important to both patients and the house of radiology. These efforts have been pointed at identifying and leveraging opportunities within payment policy. Such efforts have included developing, deploying, and analyzing surveys on patient perceptions of their imaging experience; contributions to ACR publications; and drafting language included in the CY2019 MACRA proposed rule comment letter.
  • The Education Committee encompasses work to address patient inclusion in various practice settings. The PFCC Toolkit was created to help with this work and offers resources for hospitals, private practice, and Veterans’ hospitals among others. Members continue to add resources/tools related to patient involvement in care and how to create a patient advisory committee for an institution. Radiology-TEACHES was developed to ensure appropriate clinical decision support and targets medical students. Currently, the committee is also working to create a portfolio of patient stories to share across ACR’s platforms, like Engage, to promote patient inclusion and improved patient care.
  • The Outreach Committee is essentially the “kitchen sink committee” encompassing work that doesn’t fit neatly in to the operational committees. In practice, it has served as the conduit through which staff and members build relationships with patient advocacy groups and other organizations with an interest in PFCC. From presentations at meetings to webinars and outreach via social media, this committee has wide-ranging interests and impacts. Notable is the 2-year relationship with the AHA’s Physician Alliance during which time we’ve supported the delivery of 4 webinars with 2 more scheduled for this year. This group also supports the other PFCC committees with communication and dissemination. The Social Media Subgroup is under this committee.
  • The Patient Engagement Committee works to create and promote patient facing information and resources about radiology and radiology exams. This committee identifies opportunities for outreach to patients and patient advocacy groups, to ensure patient centered care by improving patient understanding of radiology and radiology exams and the role of the radiologist. This committee is currently working to promote the Patient Friendly Summaries of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria, and in the future will create and promote additional resources that are patient facing, to increase patient engagement and understanding of radiology and radiology exams, and improve the patient and family experience during imaging care.
  • The Population Health Management (PHM) Committee supports PHM-related activities across the College and has developed its own PHM-related initiatives. We have sought to educate ACR members on the role radiology can potentially play within a PHM framework, an effort that will culminate in a six-part webinar series beginning in June of 2020. We are also building a PHM Toolkit which will help guide radiologists on how to become more involved in PHM. The Lung Cancer Screening (LCS) Task Force falls under this committee as well and is focused on increasing the adoption of LCS.

    • The Lung Cancer Screening Steering Committee aims to expand the adoption of lung cancer screening by evaluating LCS’s current status, identifying the challenges and barriers, and exploring solutions. We achieve this by collaborating on projects with other major stakeholders in the healthcare space.
  • The Quality Experience Committee supports the Quality & Safety Commission and Department by adding the PFCC perspective to ongoing programs and projects, e.g., Patient-Friendly Summaries of the ACR’s Appropriateness Criteria (AC), patient advocate member of the lead AC Committee, patient speakers at Q&S meetings, patient-focused R-SCAN project. Currently this committee is working on a case study about integrating patient and family experience-based ideas into radiology unit operations to improve quality and experiences.