title: Hidden costs of poor image quality: a radiologist's perspective.
abstract: Although image quality is a well-recognized component in the successful delivery of medical imaging services, it has arguably declined over the past decade owing to several technical, economic, cultural, and geographic factors. To improve quality, the radiologist community must take a more proactive role in image quality analysis and optimization; these require analysis of not just the single step of image acquisition but the entire imaging chain. Radiologists can benefit through improved report accuracy, diagnostic confidence, and workflow efficiency. The derived data-driven analyses offer an objective means for provider performance analysis, which can help combat commoditization trends and self-referral by nonradiologist providers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Baltimore VA Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: breiner1@comcast.net.
authors.forename: Bruce I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Reiner
mesh_terms: D057225:Data Mining; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care
keywords: Image quality; data mining; outcomes analysis; quality assurance