Informatics, imaging, and healthcare quality management: imaging quality improvement opportunities and lessons learned form HCFA's Health Care Quality Improvement Program.

This article examines the use of population-based healthcare data at the interface among radiology, healthcare informatics, and health services research for the purposes of healthcare quality management. To illustrate these concepts, we draw on experience with Health Care Financing Administration's Medicare Health Care Quality Improvement Program (HCQIP). We present two HCQIP efforts that have identified opportunities to improve the delivery of imaging services, specifically studies of the diagnosis and management of congestive heart failure and cerebrovascular disease. The examples demonstrate from a population-level perspective that there are opportunities to enhance the quality of imaging practice by reducing the magnitude of imaging practice variability, implementing evidence-based guidelines, and optimizing the communication of imaging study findings to physicians who are responsible for subsequent diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. Additional research is required in specific clinical domains of radiology to determine if implementation of evidence-based imaging guidelines and enhanced clarity in the interpretation and communication of diagnostic imaging will improve health outcomes.