Summary: The American College of Radiology (ACR) has launched ARCH-AI, a national AI quality assurance program for radiology facilities, outlining best practices and criteria for AI implementation to ensure safe and effective use, with recognition given to practices that meet these standards.

Key Takeaways:

  1. The ACR Recognized Center for Healthcare-AI (ARCH-AI) is the first national AI quality assurance program for radiology, outlining best practices for AI implementation, including infrastructure, processes, and governance.
  2. ARCH-AI helps radiology practices ensure safe and effective AI use through criteria such as establishing governance groups, maintaining detailed AI algorithm inventories, and monitoring algorithm performance.
  3. Radiology practices completing the ARCH-AI process receive an ACR Recognition badge, demonstrating their commitment to safe and responsible AI integration for better patient care.

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The American College of Radiology (ACR) has launched the ACR Recognized Center for Healthcare-AI (ARCH-AI), the first national AI quality assurance program for radiology facilities. This program outlines best practices for AI implementation, covering infrastructure, processes, and governance. ACR officials say participation in ARCH-AI helps radiology practices ensure safe and effective AI use, leading to better patient care.

“AI is different from previous technologies,” says Christoph Wald, MD, PhD, MBA, FACR, vice chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors and chair of the ACR Commission on Informatics. “Even a U.S. FDA-cleared AI product must be tested locally to ensure it works safely and as intended. Practice leaders must put safeguards in place to maximize the benefit of AI products while minimizing risk; ARCH-AI is a low-cost, efficient system to help sites do that.”

Recognition Criteria

ARCH-AI site recognition criteria include:

  • Establishing an interdisciplinary AI governance group.
  • Maintaining an inventory of AI algorithms with detailed documentation.
  • Ensuring adherence to security and compliance measures.
  • Engaging in diligent review and selection of AI algorithms.
  • Documenting use cases and training procedures.
  • Monitoring algorithm performance, including safety and effectiveness.
  • •Contributing to the “Assess-AI” central AI registry for performance benchmarking.

Effective AI Implementation in Radiology

“ARCH-AI can help radiology practices structure QA processes that help them plan for what can go wrong, including the development of good AI governance practices, acceptance testing and effectiveness monitoring of AI products to ensure they continue to function as expected over time,” adds Keith J. Dreyer, DO, PhD, FACR, ACR Data Science Institute (DSI) chief science officer.

Radiology practices that complete the ARCH-AI process will receive an ACR Recognition badge to display in their waiting rooms and lobbies to demonstrate to their communities, patients, payers and referring physicians that they are committed to integrating AI in a safe, responsible manner that allows them to provide the best possible modern healthcare.

“ARCH-AI provides a great blueprint and assists radiology facilities with AI implementation,” says Bibb Allen Jr., MD, FACR, ACR DSI chief medical officer. “DSI also offers AICentral.org , a database of FDA-cleared imaging AI products, and Assess-AI , the ACR’s AI registry that can support local AI acceptance testing and monitoring. These ACR programs can help practices meet ARCH-AI standards and receive meaningful guidance and assistance in implementing AI in a safe and effective manner for their patients.”