The ACR Appropriateness Criteria® (AC) are evidence-based guidelines to assist referring physicians and other providers in making the most appropriate imaging or treatment decision for a specific clinical condition. Employing these guidelines helps providers enhance quality of care and contribute to the most efficacious use of radiology. The AC are not intended to be used as coding guidance for radiologic procedures. Learn more »
In 2024, we added six new and six revised topics. The ACR Appropriateness Criteria includes 239 Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology topics with over 1,100 clinical variants and 3,900 clinical scenarios.
Diagnostic Imaging Updates
As a qPLE, the ACR follows guidance development requirements including a balanced, multidisciplinary team involving various stakeholders in the development process. To read more about the development process, please review the information below.
The feedback site allows us to track and manage feedback from a variety of sources. One focus of this site is to capture insights from partners who are not directly involved in the ACR AC development and review processes. Feedback and comments on any topic may be submitted at any time, including during the focused commenting period scheduled for two months after each release. We do our best to provide timely responses to all input.
JACR in collaboration with the ACR AC Patient Engagement Subcommittee, have published Patient Summaries to help patients understand what tests are appropriate for their situation. The summaries, prepared by patients (laypersons) summarize AC recommendations for patients in easy to understand language. Click here to access the patient friendly summaries.
ACR Select®, a digital representation of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria® for diagnostic imaging, is a module contained within CareSelect Imaging.
ACR Select is ready to incorporate into computerized ordering and EHR systems to guide providers when ordering medical imaging scans.
