April 14, 2022

American College of Radiology Releases New and Revised Appropriateness Criteria

Guidance provides support for referring physicians and other providers to enhance radiologic care

The American College of Radiology® (ACR®) has released the latest edition of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria®, which includes 221 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with more than 1,050 clinical variants covering 2,900 clinical scenarios.

 

“Referring physicians and other healthcare providers depend on the ACR Appropriateness Criteria for consistency and standards in providing quality patient radiologic care,” said Mark E. Lockhart, MD, MPH, chair of the ACR Committee on Appropriateness Criteria. “This tool is valuable for patients as well, providing them with easy-to-understand summaries that help explain which tests are appropriate for their situation.”

 

The ACR Appropriateness Criteria has been providing the most comprehensive evidence-based guidelines for diagnostic imaging selection and image guided interventional procedures since 1993.

 

This latest update includes five new and 15 revised topics. Each topic has a narrative, an evidence table and a literature search summary. Many of the topics also have patient-friendly summaries. 

 

The new topics in today’s release are:

Revised Topics:

Medical providers may consult the ACR Appropriateness Criteria to fulfill Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) requirements prior to ordering advanced diagnostic imaging for Medicare patients. The ACR is designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a qualified Provider-Led Entity.

For more information about ACR Appropriateness Criteria, visit the ACR website. To submit feedback or comments on any topic, access the ACR Appropriateness Criteria Commenting Site .