This measure provides a standardized method for monitoring the performance of diagnostic CT to discourage unnecessarily high radiation doses, a risk factor for cancer, while preserving image quality. It is expressed as a % of patients with CT exams that are out-of-range based on having either excessive radiation dose or inadequate image quality relative to evidence-based thresholds based on the clinical indication for the exam. All diagnostic CT exams of specified anatomic sites performed in inpatient, outpatient and ambulatory care settings are eligible. This measure is not telehealth eligible. This eCQM requires the use of additional software to access primary data elements stored within radiology electronic health records and translate them into data elements that can be ingested by this eCQM. Additional details are included in the Guidance field.

UNKNOWN

The translation software was written and will be updated and maintained by Alara Imaging and will be accessible by creating a secure account through Alara’s website.

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This Measure and related data specifications are owned by Alara Imaging, Inc. Alara Imaging, Inc. is not responsible for any use of the Measure. Alara Imaging, Inc. makes no representations, warranties, or endorsement about the quality of any organization or physician that uses or reports performance measures and Alara Imaging, Inc. has no liability to anyone who relies on such measures or specifications.

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The Measure is not a clinical guideline, does not establish a standard of medical care, and has not been tested for all potential applications.

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Limited proprietary coding is contained in the Measure specifications for convenience. Users of the proprietary code sets should obtain all necessary licenses from the owners of these code sets. Alara Imaging, Inc. disclaims all liability for use or accuracy of any third-party code contained in the specifications. CPT(R) contained in the Measure specifications is copyright 2004-2023 American Medical Association. LOINC(R) is copyright 2004-2023 Regenstrief Institute, Inc. SNOMED Clinical Terms(R) (SNOMED CT[R]) is copyright 2004-2023 International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. ICD-10 is copyright 2023 World Health Organization. All Rights Reserved. Due to technical limitations, registered trademarks are indicated by (R) or [R].

Diagnostic imaging using CT occurs in more than a third of acute care hospitalizations in the U.S. (Vance, 2013) and greater than 90 million scans are performed annually in the U.S. (IMV, 2019). There is marked observed variation in the radiation doses used to perform these exams (Smith-Bindman, 2019). The inconsistency in how CT exams are performed represents a significant, unnecessary, and modifiable iatrogenic health risk, as there is extensive epidemiological and biological evidence that suggests exposure to radiation in the same range as that routinely delivered by CT increases a person's risk of developing cancer (Board of Radiation Effects, 2006; Grant, 2017; Hong, 2019; Sakata, 2019; Sadakane, 2019, references a and b; Bernier, 2019; Meulepas, 2019; Brenner, 2020; Berrington de Gonzalez, 2020; Sugiyama, 2020; Hauptmann, 2020; Huang, 2020; Abalo, 2021; Cao, 2022; Hauptmann, 2023). It is estimated that 2% (37,000) of the 1.8 million cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. are caused by CT exams (Berrington de Gonzalez, 2009; NCI Cancer Statistics, 2020).

The measure focuses on reducing radiation dose in CT, an intermediate outcome directly and proportionally related to cancer prevention. As radiation dose is known to be directly related and proportional to future cancer risk (Board of Radiation Effects, 2006; Berrington de Gonzalez, 2009), any reduction in radiation exposure would be expected to lead to a proportional reduction in cancers. Research suggests that when healthcare organizations and clinicians are provided with a summary of their CT radiation doses, their subsequent doses can be reduced without changing the usefulness of these tests (Smith-Bindman, 2020).

On the basis of the current estimated number of CT scans performed annually in the U.S. (IMV, 2019), distribution in scan types and observed doses (Demb, 2017; Smith-Bindman, 2019), modeling of the cancer risk associated with CT at different ages of exposure (Berrington de Gonzalez, 2009), and costs of cancer care (Dieguez, 2017; Mariotto, 2011), an estimated 13,982 cancers could be prevented among Medicare beneficiaries annually, resulting in $1.86 billion to $5.21 billion annual cost savings. These cost calculations were supported by more recent data on cancer survivorship and costs, which yielded an estimated $3.04 billion dollars in annual costs savings to Medicare. (Mariotto, 2020; NCI Office of Cancer Survivorship, 2022).

The measure aligns with numerous evidence- and consensus-based clinical guidelines asking radiologists to track, optimize, and lower CT radiation doses, guidelines that have been written by the American College of Radiology (Kanal, 2017), cardiovascular imaging societies (Hirshfeld, 2018, references a, b and c noted below), Image Gently Alliance, an initiative begun by the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, American Society of Radiologic Technologists, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the Society of Pediatric Radiology, which dozens of U.S. and international organizations have joined as recently as 2020 (Image Gently Alliance, 2022), and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2019).

This measure has been strongly supported by a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) comprising a diverse group of clinicians, patient advocates, and leaders of medical specialty societies, payers, and healthcare safety and accrediting organizations, all of whom were engaged through every stage of measure conceptualization, development, and testing. In assessing the face validity of the measure, 100% of TEP members agreed radiation dose and global noise are relevant metrics of CT quality, that size is an appropriate method of risk adjustment, and that performance on this measure of radiation dose and image quality as specified is a representation of quality.