title: Consensus-oriented group peer review: a new process to review radiologist work output.
abstract: The Joint Commission and other regulatory bodies have mandated that health care organizations implement processes for ongoing physician performance review. Software solutions, such as RADPEER™, have been created to meet this need efficiently. However, the authors believe that available systems are not optimally designed to produce changes in practice and overlook many important aspects of quality by excessive focus on diagnosis. The authors present a new model of peer review known as consensus-oriented group review, which is based on group discussion of cases in a conference setting and places greater emphasis on feedback than traditional systems of radiology peer review. By focusing on the process of peer review, consensus-oriented group review is intended to optimize performance improvement and foster group standards of practice. The authors also describe the software tool developed to implement this process of enriched peer review.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: talkasab@partners.org.
authors.forename: Tarik K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Alkasab
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: H Benjamin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: Institute for Technology Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Vrushab
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gowda
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Thrall
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Daniel I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Institute for Technology Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: G Scott
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Gazelle
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D032921:Consensus; D004526:Efficiency; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000592:standards*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*; D011871:Radiology / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States
keywords: Peer review; information technology; quality improvement; regulatory compliance