The appropriateness of employing imaging screening technologies: report of the methods committee of the ACR task force on screening technologies.

Abstract

Screening for disease using imaging technologies is a growing phenomenon. For some applications (e.g., mammography and breast cancer), there is solid evidence that imaging screening reduces disease-specific mortality. However, for other applications, the public interest in imaging screening is progressing despite a lack of valid scientific evidence that such screening improves the public's health. Clinical trials promise to eventually shed light on the value of imaging screening, but the results of these trials will not be known for several years. In the meantime, physicians and the public need guidance on whether specific imaging screening examinations are appropriate. The ACR charged the Methods Committee of its Task Force on Screening Technologies to advise the organization on how it could best use available evidence to make public recommendations on imaging screening technologies. This article is the outcome of the committee's deliberations, including recommendations for the method of arriving at a recommendation, the approach to dissemination, and to whom the recommendations should be targeted.