RCR president advocates for improved data collection and optimised training in IR

Royal College of Radiology (RCR) president Kath Halliday (Nottingham University Hospitals, Nottingham, UK) gave a presentation to the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) annual scientific meeting (2–4 November, Glasgow, UK) exploring how new technologies and infrastructural reforms can improve outcomes for patients under interventional radiology (IR) department care. Drawing attention to the problems with IR practice in the National Health Service (NHS), particularly with regard to capacity, she suggested harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), collecting data, and recourse to dedicated day case units and hybrid theatres could reduce waiting times and drive more effective interventions.

She drew attention to the fact that “there are no data” widely available on IR procedures. The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme reviews services and procedure outcomes across the NHS but, Halliday said, provides little in the way of information on the outcomes of IR procedures. “We need to be able to identify IR procedures from our radiology codes,” she argued, stating that these in turn need to link to the codes used in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), a database of NHS admissions records covering comorbidities, length of stay and outcomes.