The British Institute of Radiology (BIR) welcomes the second edition of the “Standards for provision of teleradiology within the United Kingdom” released in December 2016 by The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR). The standards update the guidance previously issued by the RCR in 2010.
With the current shortage of radiologists teleradiology (the transmission of a patient’s imaging date between different locations) is increasingly relied on for production of primary report, expert second opinion or clinical review.
The BIR agrees that it is vital that there are up-to-date standards set on data transfer, reporting, communications and quality assurance and that teleradiology must have the same level of governance and quality control as regular image reporting. However, standards for image reporting within healthcare are not universal throughout the UK which makes quality assurance vital.
The BIR calls for uniform implementation of these standards throughout the UK for both hospital and remote working.
Moreover, the BIR acknowledges that radiographer reporting is well established and the standards apply equally to reporting radiographers who may be involved in remote diagnostic or clinical reporting as well as radiologists.
Source & Image Credit: British Institute of Radiology
