Gregory N. Nicola, MD, vice president, Hackensack Radiology Group, Oradell, N.J., concurs. He notes that in affording radiologists, imaging centers and hospital-based imaging players an avenue for formulating and comparing national benchmarks, registries set the stage for improving the caliber of care delivered to patients. “The term ‘quality’ can be tricky to interpret, and it can be difficult to determine exactly what needs to be done to achieve or improve it unless you’re looking at objective measures, instead of through your own lens,” Nicola asserts. “For instance, without the National Mammography Database in place, who really is to say that the mammography recall rate for a particular practice isn’t high enough—or too high, for that matter—to contribute to quality care?”

He adds that increasing the automation of objective quality metrics through participation in such registries as those that fall under the NRDR umbrella also gives practitioners additional time for conducting internal peer reviews and leveraging internal quality control programs. This, too, has a heavy bearing on caliber of care and the overall patient experience.