ASNC Releases Health Policy Brief on Medical Imaging to Educate Federal and State Policymakers
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June 2, 2005
In March, the leadership of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) expressed its strong support for two major steps that ASNC members should take to demonstrate the importance of quality in our laboratories and exhibit leadership in the imaging debate - supporting mandatory certification for nuclear cardiologists and accreditation of each of our nuclear labs. The society believes in recommending ways for its members to continue to insure better patient safety and greater quality of patient care. To this end, the ASNC committees on Government Relations (GR) and Community-Based Practice (CBP) are continually examining critical areas in which the society should be speaking out.
Given all the recent rhetoric over supposed patient safety issues associated with office-based imaging, the GR and CBP Committees have developed discussion topics on issues such as education and training, radiation safety, quality of care and patient safety protection. Regarding the last item, these same committees have developed a document entitled, "Protecting Patient Safety While Providing Quality Office-Based Imaging."
In this critical document the committee members encourage nuclear cardiologists to:
- maintain individual certification and accreditation of their nuclear labs
- provide thorough patient education through recognized informed consent criteria
- remain current in their advanced cardiac resuscitative training
- actively participate in continuing medical education
This special briefing paper for policymakers entitled, "Imagine the Consequences." This piece includes a series of individual articles prepared by members of the ASNC Committees on Government Relations, Community-Based Practice, and Education. Taken in their totality, the articles paint a broad picture of the activities that our society has been undertaking to protect patient quality of care and access to the specialty of nuclear cardiology - one of the fastest growing and most efficient medical disciplines in evaluating coronary artery disease.
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