ACR Appropriateness Criteria Patient-Friendly Summaries and Patient-Friendly Animations: Initiatives to Engage Patients and Promote Shared Decision Making

Abstract

The American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria® are evidence-based guidelines for the use of diagnostic imaging tests and image-guided interventions. They are approved to provide appropriate use criteria (AUC) under the Medicare Appropriate Use Criteria program for advanced diagnostic imaging. The guidelines are created by expert panels of radiologists and other clinicians and are written in technical language intended for health care professionals. In order to make the information in the guidelines more accessible to patients, and to enable patients to participate in shared decision making about their imaging care, two patient-centered initiatives have been developed. The ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Patient-Friendly Summaries are 250-word lay language documents, written by lay persons working together with radiologists, that summarize the information in the Appropriateness Criteria®. The ACR Patient-Friendly Animations are one minute animated videos that further condense the information in the guidelines into a format that can be easily absorbed by lay persons and shared via social media. This article provides the history, development and current status of these initiatives which promote patient and family centered care, quality, and safety in radiology.