Remote operation of radiological exams holds enormous potential to improve access to advanced diagnostic imaging exams, particularly for smaller providers, and in rural and remote areas. This potential will continue to go unrealized, however, as long as the ambiguity about legal responsibilities for quality and safety in remote scanning persist. The RSQS model standards will specifically address this concern and ‘unlock’ the patient access potentials of remote scanning, specifically for MRI, CT, and PET exams.

Technologically, imaging providers can enable the most basic form of remote scanning with just a few hundred dollars of electronics, installed with an hour of YouTube instruction… the technology is not the challenge. The challenge occurs when identifying ‘who’ will perform the tasks that had historically been performed by the resident radiographer? Or ‘what’ training or competency assurances need to be in place for new roles & responsibilities? Or ‘where’ do providers find new policies to govern the very different workflows necessitated by remote scanning?

Remote scanning is not a simple evolution from the ‘way we’ve always done things.’ It is a revolution in the way healthcare providers can provide advanced diagnostic imaging services, and it requires entirely new ways of defining and assuring equal (or better) patient experience, exam quality, and safety. RSQS is dedicated to providing those tools.