What Is Your Radiologist Assistant Student Worth to You?

Does radiography advanced practice improve patient outcomes and health service quality? A systematic review

“…39,40 The articles were generally considered to be of low-to-moderate quality, evaluating advanced practice activities within a single centre and providing limited robust methodological information required to confirm study quality. With respect to the WHO quality dimensions, 29 six studies considered cost reduction; 32,33,35,[38][39][40] three studies considered reduction in patient morbidity; [32][33][34] two studies considered reduction in time to treatment; 33,34 and two studies considered patient satisfaction. 36,37 No studies considered or reported data relating to time to diagnosis, time to recovery or patient mortality.…”

“…Interestingly, the majority of studies reviewed addressed the efficiency domain of service quality, with six studies 32,33,35,[38][39][40] considering the potential cost effectiveness of advanced practice. In contrast, only two studies 36,37 considered the acceptable domain and evaluated patient satisfaction, with an intervention undertaken by advanced practice radiographers.…”

“…Ludwig 40 also considered the cost effectiveness of role substitution within the North American healthcare framework, calculating the potential health insurance reimbursement charges that might be attributable to employing a radiologist assistant (RA). Ludwig acknowledged limitations with the study design, specifically that the reimbursement values used included charges for image reporting, a task currently outside the scope of practice for RAs.…”

The Impact of Nonphysician Providers on Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Practices: Regulatory, Billing, and Compliance Perspectives

“…This precludes collection of objective national data from administrative claims files on services they may render. A recent literature search regarding RAs revealed only a limited number of reports; the vast majority of these are commentaries or review articles addressing training programs and compliance issues [2,10,37,38,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. For these reasons, the frequency, types, and outcomes of services being rendered by RAs are largely unknown.…”

The Radiologist Assistant: Best New Thing Since Sliced Bread or Trojan Horse?

“…At one academic institution a cohort of eight RA students was followed from 2004 to 2006. The number of procedures performed by the RA student had a mean of 581 and a mean professional reimbursement of $58 957" (11).…”