The American Board of Radiology perspective on maintenance of certification: Part IV - Practice quality improvement in diagnostic radiology

There is a national imperative to improve the quality and safety of health care. For radiologists, participation in the ABR's MOC PQI projects is a vehicle through which this can happen. We must measure what we do, provide comparative data, and encourage standardization of practice components to work toward improving the quality of care. Radiology has lagged behind some of the other specialties in measuring what we do and documenting our impact on clinical care. The ABR PQI program is a work in progress. Considerable progress has been made in understanding our charge and identifying ways to use common practice metrics to enhance the individual's practice of radiology, yet change will occur and should be anticipated. As our evidence base grows, our PQI efforts will be improved and refined. We encourage active participation of all certified radiologists, both those with time-limited certificates and those with lifetime certificates. We believe that most radiologists want to engage in a personally and professionally rewarding, publicly visible process for ongoing quality improvement.