Coming Soon – the CAR’s Radiology Resilience Report
The weight of the pandemic on society and radiologists continues like a slow burn rather than an explosion. This new pandemic reality is not going away. In response to an immense backlog and increasing burnout, the CAR created the Radiology Resilience Task Force to look at how the community is responding to the on-going pandemic.
The Task Force is made up of leading radiologists from across the country and includes technologists, medical physicists as well as support from CADTH and Health Canada. The Task Force is being led by CAR Board member, Dr. Heidi Schmidt, Department Head Medical Imaging and Program Medical Director, Joint Department of Medical Imaging University Health Network. The report is informed by two related CAR member surveys, as well as the best publicly available data. Radiologists stepped-up to lead through a fog of uncertainty. The report aims to learn from this experience and the many frustrations that occurred as well as to celebrate the successes.
The report will include the following sections:
- The impact COVID-19 has had on wait times for medical imaging.
- Lessons learned during the pandemic, and how radiology can adapt while moving forward.
- Recommendations for enhancing the resilience of radiology, including investment in human resources, technology, and infrastructure.
- The future of radiology and where we see medical imaging in 5-10 years.
“The Radiology Resilience Report provides guidance to the radiology community and healthcare teams for sustainability of medical imaging in Canada. Moreover, this report provides recommendations for building the necessary infrastructure to improve patient care while supporting the future of radiology. Many thanks to the members and the CAR staff who have been working diligently these past months to collect and curate a large amount of data and information thus bringing this resource to fruition.”
– Dr. Heidi Schmidt, Chair, Radiology Resilience Task Force, and CAR Board Member
The radiology community in Canada countered the disruption caused by COVID-19 with a strong agile response as it endeavoured to adapt to volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous circumstances, while ensuring the continuity of high-quality patient care to the greatest extent possible. Through this experience, the radiology community worked to build resilience and foster the ability to recover after challenging circumstances and emerged stronger on the other side. The report is one of the many initiatives that the CAR, working with our healthcare partners, has undertaken during the pandemic to provide radiologists with guidance and to advocate for a federal investment in medical imaging equipment, infrastructure, and health human resources. Congratulations to all the CAR members who contributed to the development of this report. A special thank you to our Board of Directors and Chair of the Radiology Resilience Task Force, Dr. Heidi Schmidt.
Stay tuned for the full report.