Computed radiography dose data mining and surveillance as an ongoing quality assurance improvement process

OBJECTIVE. A data-mining program extracts computed radiography (CR) sensitivity-number (S-number) information from the PACS at our institution on a monthly basis as an on-going quality assurance (QA) improvement project. These data are compared with the previous month's data and departmental S-number goals. The results are presented at monthly QA meetings. The S-number trends are then used by technologists to modify radiographic technique charts to reach the departmental S-number target range goals. CONCLUSION. This cyclic QA improvement process shows that mining PACS data can be useful in reducing patient radiation dose and interexamination dose variance.