Current diagnostic imaging modalities provide accurate, non-invasive, and rapid means of diagnosis in the emergency department. However, current diagnostic imaging use has drawn the attention of the public, policy makers, and payers with questions regarding the appropriateness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of current utilization practices. The area of emergency department diagnostic imaging is ripe for investigation into etiologies for current practices and interventions to ensure consistent and appropriate use of these modalities. This grant seeks funding for the 2015 AEM Consensus Conference titled """"""""Diagnostic Imaging Utilization in the Emergency Department: A Research Agenda to Optimize Utilization"""""""" which will be held on May 12, 2015 in San Diego, CA. The overarching goal of the conference is to develop a multidisciplinary, high priority research agenda to improve and optimize diagnostic imagining utilization in the emergency department. This goal will be achieved through the following specific aims: 1) critically examine the state of science regarding diagnostic imaging utilization in the emergency department and identify opportunities, limitations, and gaps in knowledge of previous study designs and methodology;2) develop a consensus statement that emphasizes the priorities and opportunities for research in emergency diagnostic imaging that will result in practice changes and the most effective methodological approaches to emergency diagnostic imaging research;and, 3) explore and improve investigators'knowledge of specific funding mechanisms available to perform research in emergency diagnostic imaging. For 14 years, Academic Emergency Medicine, the second largest peer-reviewed emergency medicine journal, has hosted a one-day Consensus Conference in a salient topic in emergency medicine with the explicit purpose of generating a research agenda on which to base future investigation. The 2015 conference will bring together researchers, policy makers, funding agencies, and other experts and relevant stakeholders to generate such an agenda in the field of emergency department diagnostic imaging. The conference will have 2 plenary speakers who will discuss diagnostic imaging as a quality measure and the national influential campaigns developed to increase awareness and appropriateness of use, Image Wisely and Image Gently. In addition, there will be 2 panel discussions regarding quality measures and reimbursement, and funding opportunities for emergency department diagnostic imaging research. Finally, and most importantly, there will be a total of 7 breakout groups focusing on a key aspect of imaging research, led by experts in the field. The conference will culminate with publication of the proceedings in Academic Emergency Medicine and other specialty journals in order to maximize dissemination of the conference output.
For the last 2 decades, medical providers have increased their use of diagnostic imaging tests in the emergency department without a clear understanding of the benefits and consequences. The overarching goal of this consensus conference, Diagnostic Imaging in the Emergency Department: A Research Agenda to Optimize Utilization, is to develop a research agenda that identifies strategies to determine the appropriate and effective use of imaging tests in the emergency setting.
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