Improving Radiological Services (IROS)

– From low-value care to effective high-value services

25% of the Norwegian population has one or more outpatient radiological examinations every year at the total cost of 813 million NOK. Internationally it is estimated that 20-50% of radiological examinations represent overutilization. A conservative estimate (20%) would mean that 260,000 outpatient examinations in Norway every year are unnecessary and provide no benefit for the patient or for the health services. On the contrary, they represent a risk in terms of false positive test results, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and side effects, including unnecessary radiation exposure. The costs for unnecessary outpatient radiological services alone are 163 million NOK in 2017.

The objective of this project is to free resources for high-value care by identifying and reducing low-value radiological services. By using state of the art methodology in health services research, implementation science, and health economics, IROS will identify low-value radiological services and tailor an intervention to free resources for high-value radiological services.

Additionally IROS will increase patient safety and quality of care and reduce the variability in these services. This will be obtained by strong stakeholder involvement in all phases of the project. Therefore the Norwegian Medical Association, the Norwegian Radiological Association, the Norwegian Patients’ Organization as well as key stakeholders at the regional hospitals are strongly involved. The project connects tightly to the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s Strategy for rational use of radiological services. This gives the project a timewise and topical match between research, professional initiatives, and health policy. Moreover, it addresses the health services urgent need to free resources for high-value care.