The ACR-accredited Center for Healthcare AI, launched last week by the American Academy of Radiology, is billed as the first quality assurance program for radiology facilities looking to use artificial intelligence in their imaging workflows.
WHY IT MATTERS
As radiology practices work toward and attest to the program’s compliance goals, joining ARCH-AI can help them deploy AI products more safely and effectively, and help radiologists provide better patient care, according to the ACR, which lists accreditation criteria such as establishing an interdisciplinary AI governance team and maintaining a well-documented repository of AI algorithms.
The program also prioritizes activities that ensure compliance with security and compliance measures; engage in rigorous algorithm evaluation and selection processes; document use case-focused training processes; track model performance for safety and efficiency; and contribute to a central AI registry “AI Review” to evaluate performance.
ACR leaders say ARCH-AI is built on established best practices and is designed to provide expert consensus-based building blocks focused on infrastructure, processes, and governance.
“ARCH-AI can help radiology practices build a QA process structure that helps them plan for potential failures, including developing good AI governance practices, acceptance testing, and monitoring the effectiveness of AI products to ensure they continue to perform as expected over time,” said Keith J. Dreyer, MD, chief scientific officer at the ACR Data Science Institute and a longtime leader in radiology AI innovation.
ACR says clinics that complete the ARCH-AI certification will receive a badge to display in their lobby to demonstrate their commitment to AI safety to patients, payers, and referring physicians.
THE BIGGER TREND
Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications are changing the way radiology is practiced and have enormous potential to drive more efficient and higher quality imaging workflows as AI continues to evolve.
But, like any clinical application of AI, it is critically important that they are deployed carefully and deliberately, with a keen eye for safety and efficacy. That is what this and other frameworks are designed to help ensure.
ON PROFILE
“AI is different from previous technologies,” said Dr. Christoph Wald, vice chair of the ACR Board of Directors and chair of the ACR Informatics Committee, in a statement. “Even an AI product approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must undergo local testing to ensure the product is safe and works as intended. Practice leaders must implement safeguards to maximize the benefits of AI products while minimizing risks.”
ARCH-AI offers “a low-cost, efficient system to help sites do that,” he said.
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the author: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.
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