Collaborate on Quality, Safety and Informatics

Marta E. Heilbrun, MD, MS, and Gloria Hwang, MD, share insights about how the ACR® Quality and Safety + Informatics (QS+I) conference can help you discover how to collaborate on high-quality care and boost innovation. The conference kicks off Oct. 16 in Atlanta. Improve patient care and your career. Register today for the QS+I in-person or virtual conference.

What is the goal of the 2026 QS+I conference?

Dr. Heilbrun: Our focus continues to be real problems and real solutions, because that work never ends, and it’s a responsibility we all share in practicing medicine. This year, we are bringing quality improvement and informatics together as a seamless whole rather than two separate tracks. With AI now woven into daily practice, we have new opportunities to solve problems we’ve never been able to tackle before. Our goal is to keep pulling these two communities closer together to magnify our opportunities for success.

Dr. Hwang: One of the best things about QS+I is that it’s one of the few places where radiologists who care deeply about quality improvement and safety can connect with those who care about informatics. These used to be separate communities, but they’re converging as people realize that informatics exists to improve how radiologists work and to support their efficiency. Our goal is to keep a finger on the pulse of the problems radiology practices are facing nationwide and to give attendees the chance to sit together and talk through how they’re solving the same challenges.

What’s new for the QS+I Conference in 2026?

Dr. Heilbrun: We’ve asked our planning committee to build sessions that speak to entire care teams rather than just physicians, with content aimed at technologists and operational leaders alongside informaticists. We also moved the conference to a Friday–Saturday format, and we chose Atlanta for its accessibility, so more people from more places can attend.

Dr. Hwang: We’ve condensed the conference from three days to two because taking that much time away from clinical service has become harder. We’re also sharing a venue with the ACR RLI Leadership Summit, so attendees can mingle with radiology leaders during breaks.

What are some of the key themes and topics you’re planning for the conference?

Dr. Heilbrun: Incidental findings management is one topic we’ll dig into at the conference. For example, large language models now let us search electronic health records and patient encounters to confirm whether a flagged finding received follow-up rather than relying solely on the original flag. We’ll also talk about the governance and monitoring needed to use AI tools responsibly, including how to verify if a tool is inserting the correct clinical criteria and how to track outcomes once a tool is in place.

Dr. Hwang: We have some really interesting topics lined up, including issues like healthcare sustainability, measuring what matters and workforce retention. Another key focus is AI in quality improvement and operational practice. We’ve chosen many of the topics because they are of national interest to radiologists and their teams and practices.

Why bring quality, safety and informatics together in one conference? What synergies happen when you bring these discussions together?

Dr. Heilbrun: Quality improvement teaches us to dig into root causes: Why patients get frustrated with scheduling or why care gaps happen. But we work in increasingly electronic systems, and informatics is often what determines whether or not information flows the way it should. If the informatics tool is broken, no amount of human effort will fix the underlying problem. Bringing these two disciplines together means asking both whether the tool works and whether it’s solving the right problem in the first place.

Dr. Hwang: Right now, radiology is dealing with workload that’s outpacing capacity, and AI is one of the most popular solutions being considered. But AI is different enough from past technologies that practices are still figuring out how to evaluate a good investment, monitor performance and watch for new problems AI might introduce. Sustaining a quality target is often as hard as achieving it in the first place, and technology that can automate the ongoing collection of that data is enormously valuable. The people with strong informatics skills need to understand which problems matter most and which metrics are hardest to capture.

Who should attend the QS+I Conference?

Dr. Heilbrun: My ideal attendee group is a small team: A physician leader alongside several people across the operational side, including a lead technologist and an informatics staff lead. This mirrors how care teams actually function, with a larger group of technologists and operational leads who are supporting a smaller group of physicians.

Dr. Hwang: Any radiologist who wants to take a systems-level look at how their practice runs and how to improve it should attend, from trainees to senior leaders. We also want technologists and hospital administrators in the room, since many of the solutions that we’ll discuss touch their workflows, too. The conference is especially valuable when people come together as a team.

What are the advantages of co-locating QS+I with the ACR RLI Leadership Summit?

Dr. Heilbrun: Good leadership depends on identifying effective workflows and creating space for people to succeed, and that requires understanding both quality improvement strategy and how to evaluate informatics tools when you’re being pitched a dozen new platforms. Co-locating with RLI lets quality and safety professionals — who are often the quiet change agents in their organizations — sit in on leadership training and build the relationships that help them grow into leadership roles. We’re already seeing examples of this path working, including leaders who’ve risen through quality improvement and informatics expertise.

Dr. Hwang: Radiology leaders are responsible for the quality of their practice and for the safe rollout of new technology, so they should be just as engaged with what we’re discussing at QS+I. Achieving real change requires buy-in from leadership, and sharing a venue makes that connection easier.

What are the opportunities to create connections at the in-person conference?

Dr. Heilbrun: We’re intentional about building in long breaks because the hallway conversations are often where the real value happens. Our venues are smaller and conducive to crossing paths with people repeatedly. The connections made here can be career-changing: You might meet someone who’s already solved the exact problem you’re working through and who becomes a long-term resource you can call after the conference ends.

Dr. Hwang: Scientific literature mostly captures successes, but when you’re actually solving problems what helps most is knowing what didn’t work and why. Those conversations happen far more easily over lunch than in a published paper. Many attendees leave having connected with someone who became a mentor — someone they could call the next time they hit a wall. It’s also reassuring to realize that struggles you assumed were unique to your organization are shared widely across the field.

What are the benefits of registering for the virtual event if someone can’t attend in person?

Dr. Heilbrun: Our speakers are chosen to be dynamic so virtual attendees still get high-quality, practical content. One real advantage of virtual attendance is cost: It’s easier and more affordable to bring a larger group, so you might have three technologists or operational leads from multiple facilities logging in together rather than sending just one person to the live conference.

Dr. Hwang: You’ll still learn a great deal from the speakers, who are covering topics of genuine national interest to radiologists, and there’s real value in hearing the question-and-answer discussion as other attendees raise their own experiences.

What actionable steps can attendees take to enhance their learning experience and improve quality of care?

Dr. Heilbrun: Come in with a couple of specific problems already in mind, whether that’s a workflow gap or a tool you’ve been pitched and aren’t sure how to evaluate. As you listen to sessions, reflect specifically on how the generalizable lessons apply to your own challenge. Take a few minutes each day to note what reinforced something you knew and what was genuinely new, and leave with a concrete plan to start implementing as soon as you’re back.

Dr. Hwang: For each topic ask yourself what your current state is and who at the conference might help you close the gap to where you want to be. Come with your team, take detailed notes and plan to bring a summary back to your quality committee. Having multiple people from your organization attend means you can divide and conquer on capturing the most valuable takeaways.

Bottom line: Why should people attend the 2026 QS+I conference?

Dr. Heilbrun: This is the only conference like it right now. You’ll meet the thought leaders and change agents working on the same questions you are, all focused on one thing: How we make medicine better.

Dr. Hwang: It’s a fun, highly interactive program, and people leave motivated to make the changes their practice needs. You need time away from the daily grind to get inspired and come back renewed with new ideas that you can implement in your practice to solve real-world problems.