Field Review

Review and Comment 

Starting this year, the draft Practice Parameters and Technical Standards will all be available for comment for seven weeks, instead of four separate cycles.

The draft PP&TS documents being considered at the 2024 ACR Annual Meeting are available for commenting starting August 21, 2023.

Field review is the last opportunity to make changes to Practice Parameters & Technical Standards during the review process. It is strongly encouraged for members to review documents during field review. Factual errors, grammar, and misspellings may be submitted directly to ACR staff at any time.

Field Review Cycle for 2023 opens August 21st, 2023, and will close October 6th, 2023. All applicable Practice Parameters and Technical Standards will be available for comment via Document Online Commenting Tool (DOCS) and will require login credentials.

2024 Practice Parameters and Technical Standards

Breast Imaging

Breast Stereo/Tomo Guided Procedures

Whole Breast Ultrasound

Body Imaging- Abdominal

MRI Prostate- (collaborative with SABI, SAR)

MRI Soft Tissue Pelvis- (collaborative with SAR, SPR)

Upper GI Adults

Body Imaging- Musculoskeletal

DXA- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

MRI Shoulder- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Scoliosis in Children- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Body Imaging- Thoracic

CT Lung Cancer Screening- (collaborative with STR)

General, Small, Emergency and/or Rural Practices (GSER)

CT Colonography- (collaborative with SABI, SAR)

CT Lung Cancer Screening- (collaborative with STR)

DXA- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Scoliosis in Children- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Upper GI Adults

Interventional and Cardiovascular Radiology

Acute Stroke- (collaborative with ASNR, SIR, SNIS)

Interventional Clinical Practice- (collaborative with SIR, SNIS, SPR)

Radioembolization of Liver Malignancies- (collaborative with ABS, ACNM, ARS, SIR, SNMMI)

Reporting and Archiving- (collaborative with SIR, SPR)

Medical Physics

Diagnostic Interpretation Displays Standard- (collaborative with AAPM)

DXA Equipment Standard- (collaborative with AAPM)

IGRT Standard- (collaborative with AAPM)

MRI Equipment Standard- (collaborative with AAPM)

SBRT Standard- (collaborative with AAPM)

Neuroradiology

Acute Stroke- (collaborative with ASNR, SIR, SNIS)

MRI Brain- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

MRI Pediatric Spine- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

MR Spectroscopy- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

Myelography and Cisternography- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

Cardiac Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, NASCI, SNMMI, SPR, STR)

Iodine-131 Sodium Iodide- (collaborative with ACNM, ARS, SNMMI, SPR)

Parathyroid Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, SNMMI, SPR)

PET CT Prostate Cancer- (collaborative with ACNM, SNMMI)

Radioembolization of Liver Malignancies- (collaborative with ABS, ACNM, ARS, SIR, SNMMI)

Radium 223 Dichloride- (collaborative with ACNM, ARS, SNMMI)

Thyroid Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, SNMMI, SPR)

Pediatric Radiology

Cardiac Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, NASCI, SNMMI, SPR, STR)

DXA- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Interventional Clinical Practice- (collaborative with SIR, SNIS, SPR)

Iodine-131 Sodium Iodide- (collaborative with ACNM, ARS, SNMMI, SPR)

MRI Brain- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

MRI Pediatric Spine- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

MRI Shoulder- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

MRI Soft Tissue Pelvis- (collaborative with SAR, SPR)

MR Spectroscopy- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

Myelography and Cisternography- (collaborative with ASNR, SPR)

Parathyroid Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, SNMMI, SPR)

Reporting and Archiving- (collaborative with SIR, SPR)

Scoliosis in Children- (collaborative with SPR, SSR)

Thyroid Scintigraphy- (collaborative with ACNM, SNMMI, SPR)

US Solid Organ Transplants- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Female Pelvis- (collaborative with ACOG, AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Neurosonography- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Peripheral Venous- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

Voiding in Children- (collaborative with SPR)

Radiation Oncology

IGRT- (collaborative with ARS)

Iodine-131 Sodium Iodide- (collaborative with ACNM, ARS, SNMMI, SPR)

Radioembolization of Liver Malignancies- (collaborative with ABS, ACNM, ARS, SIR, SNMMI)

Radium 223 Dichloride- (collaborative with ACNM, ARS, SNMMI)

SBRT- (collaborative with ARS)

Ultrasound

US Elastography- (collaborative with SRU)

US Female Pelvis- (collaborative with ACOG, AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Peripheral Venous- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Postop Dialysis- (collaborative with AIUM, SRU)

US Neurosonography- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

US Solid Organ Transplants- (collaborative with AIUM, SPR, SRU)

 

Overview of Field Review process

All ACR members are invited to review and comment on the documents that will be presented at the subsequent annual meeting. Draft documents are available for comments between August and November via the online commenting tool (Login Required).

Your input as an individual ACR member has equal weight whether you are a Board member or a member in training. Only comments that provide specific language recommendations can be used for document revisions. General feedback about an issue relevant to the document that does not suggest language cannot be acted upon without assuming what was intended.

Collaborative society representatives must follow the society’s process for reviewing and commenting on the documents during field review. ACR process requires the collaborating society has knowledge of, and final decision on all comments submitted on their behalf. Please coordinate with the appropriate society staff to submit comments for that society. If you are both a society representative and an ACR member, you may also participate individually as described in the prior paragraph.

The draft parameters and standards are grouped into one of four (or five, if needed) field review cycles; each cycle lasts three weeks.

At the conclusion of each cycle, the comments are collated by staff to be reviewed by one of the ACR Council Steering Committee member-led committees (aka Council Reconciliation Committees). Noncontroversial editorial changes and errors identified through the commenting process are incorporated into the document prior to review by the committee, leaving only substantive comments, which may be resolved through email. When appropriate, a conference call is held by a Council Reconciliation Committee to allow commenters and writing committee members the opportunity to discuss suggested language and determine possible revisions.

The applicable collaborating societies receive the “final draft” document which will be presented at the ACR Annual Meeting. Collaborating societies are asked to acknowledge the final draft document receipt and are provided an opportunity to state any concerns prior to the annual meeting, to expedite communication prior to approval considerations. No changes can be made to the final draft documents until they are presented for approval to ACR Council at the ACR Annual Meeting.

Approvals are obtained from each of the collaborating societies after ACR BOC, CSC, and Council adoption. For more information on the approval process, see “Review and Approval Process” section of the Practice Parameters and Technical Standards Development Handbook.

Please note: Field review is the last activity of the Practice Parameters and Technical Standards review process. All edits proposed during field review will be considered for incorporation into the document. No changes to the documents can be considered once the field review has been completed. Changes may be introduced during the approval phase of the document, but the vetting discussion may be brief and may not get the full consideration of the committee. It is strongly encouraged for members to review documents during field review. Factual errors, grammar, and misspellings may be submitted directly to ACR staff at any time and should not be submitted during approval process.