Clinical Services in IR Task Force
Clinical services in IR
While the set-up of interventional radiology as well as IR’s access to the three pillars of clinical practice – infrastructure, staff and time – varies considerably across Europe, CIRSE encourages all interventional radiologists to put more consideration towards their clinical practice. Every IR can begin to develop their own clinical practice by starting to do patient rounds before and after a procedure. In most cases, it has been or will be an incremental and often long process from patient rounds towards outpatient clinics and potentially inpatient IR beds, but it will be worth the journey.
Following the publication of the CIRSE Clinical Practice Manual in 2021, a dedicated task force was established in 2023 to advance IR as a clinical specialty. This task force will assess the status quo of clinical practice in IR, develop strategies for setting up a clinical service in IR considering varying framework conditions, and contribute to broadening CIRSE’s educational offer in this field.
Click here to view the members of the Clinical Services in IR task force.
The future is clinical, and the best time to start your IR clinical service is now!
Watch Prof. Binkert’s CIRSE 2023 speech on CIRSE’s vision for the future of interventional radiology here.
Toolkit for IRs
The Clinical Services in IR Task Force has compiled a toolkit for IRs at all stages of their career – offering practical advice, training and education materials as well as further readings for specific topics. IRs are invited to use these tools to improve their skills or master challenges or opportunities they are currently facing.
CIRSE Library topic packages
- Provision of IR Services – compiled by C. Nice in April 2023
- IR going clinical – compiled by P. Reimer in December 2022
The Task Force has furthermore compiled relevant further readings a list of arguments in favour of building clinical practice in IR, supported by relevant references, that IRs can consult for negotiations with their hospital administration or regulatory bodies.
Click here to read the CIRSE Insider interview on clinical practice building in IR with Prof. Andreas Mahnken, Chairperson of the Clinical Services in IR Task Force.
Coming soon: CIRSE Academy Course on Clinical Practice and micro-learning videos to help you start your clinical routine.
Over the past decade, interventional radiologists have become increasingly aware of the need to be clinically involved with their patients, from first consultation, throughout treatment and all the way to follow-up. Although conditions to achieve this goal vary from country to country, there are paradigms that are universally applicable and valuable lessons to be learned from institutions where clinical involvement of IRs has already become the norm.
A CIRSE Library topic package, “IR Going clinical” highlights this important topic.
Levels of clinical services infrastructure
The Clinical Services in IR Task Force developed a three-stage system for clinical services infrastructure development. This system shall help create awareness of the fact that different levels of service provision can be offered and worked towards. IRs may also use this system to benchmark themselves and set personal goals for future developments in their centre and practice.
| Inpatient | Outpatient | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | ||||||||
| Regular visits to all patients treated by IR (IR rounds – making/suggesting prescriptions) | IR sees and treats outpatients without own outpatient clinic/infrastructure | |||||||
| Preprocedural (work up and/or) communication with patients | Preprocedural work up and/or communication with patients | |||||||
| IR takes part in relevant MDT (vascular/oncology) meetings | IR takes part in relevant MDT meetings (vascular/oncology) meetings (if applicable) | |||||||
| Level 2 | ||||||||
| Dedicated Time for clinical work in IR | Dedicated Time for clinical work in IR | |||||||
| Ordering/performing clinical work e.g. blood sampling, clinical exam etc. beyond IR procedures | Ordering/performing clinical work e.g. blood sampling, clinical exam etc. beyond IR procedures | |||||||
| Admission rights (without own beds) | Limited IR outpatient clinic | |||||||
| Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for most common procedures | Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for most common procedures | |||||||
| IR referral pathways/ entry point (e.g., admission desk) | ||||||||
| Level 3 | ||||||||
| Regular ward rounds | IR Outpatient clinic with dedicated IR staff (revenue is assigned to IR) | |||||||
| Own beds (revenue is assigned to IR) | Independent access to hospital resources (like imaging lab etc.) | |||||||
| Dedicated IR theatre staff / physician support staff | Training scheme/program for IRs and staff | |||||||
| Independent access to hospital resources (e.g., imaging, laboratory, pathology, etc.) | Regular M&M meetings as part of governance | |||||||
| Training scheme/programme for IRs and staff | IR day unit – independent day case pathway from referral to follow-up | |||||||
| Regular M&M meetings as part of governance | ||||||||
For any further information about CIRSE’s activities in the field of clinical practice as well as the task force’s work, please contact [email protected].
Task force members
| Name | Role | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreas H. Mahnken | Chairperson | ||
| Alessandro Cannavale | |||
| Joo-Young Chun | |||
| Thierry De Baere | |||
| Rok Dezman | |||
| Stevo Duvnjak | |||
| Miltiadis Krokidis | |||
| Maria Antonella Ruffino | |||
| Anthony Ryan | |||
| Jose Urbano | |||