The 1-800-Imaging pilot aimed to improve primary care access to medical imaging within a tertiary subspecialized environment, according to presenter Karen Weiser of the University Health Network in Toronto.
"In Ontario, community-based primary care physicians requiring urgent investigations were often impeded by long wait times; their patients were often sent to overcrowded emergency departments to expedite imaging," she said.
This virtual hub offered primary care physicians a single point of contact with the academic medical imaging department, facilitating a real-time consultation with a subspecialized radiologist and escalation of urgent imaging requests, according to the researchers.
When they assessed the impact of the pilot project, they found that primary care physicians value conversations with radiologists to gain clinical insights and validation of imaging decisions, Weiser said.
"Evidence-based guidelines are required to ensure appropriate, equitable, and efficient use of imaging resources," Weiser told AuntMinnie.com. "Community-based primary care has unique medical imaging needs; preliminary lessons learned serve as an opportunity to redesign the imaging journey for community-based physicians and their patients."
