UH Receives Recognition from the American College of Radiology for Advances and Implementation of AI

CLEVELAND – The Department of Radiology at University Hospitals (UH) has been recognized as a leader in the adoption of best practices for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in radiology. On top of an established national and international presence in the field of research, development and industry collaboration through the Radiology AI & Diagnostic Innovation Collaborative (RadiCLE) program, UH Radiology now achieves prominent recognition on the deployment of clinical AI to directly benefit our patients and caregivers.

The Department of Radiology was named a recognized center as part of the American College of Radiology^® (ACR^®) Recognized Center for Healthcare-AI (ARCH-AI), the first national artificial intelligence quality assurance program for radiology facilities. The “seal of approval” that accompanies the ARCH-AI designation further validates and strongly positions UH as a significant national and international player in the realm of healthcare AI, according to Leonardo Kayat Bittencourt, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair of Innovation in the Department of Radiology at UH, and head of RadiCLE.

“Our expert team of radiologists, physician leaders and informatics experts are dedicated to implementing and maximizing the clinical and administrative applications of AI technologies,” says Donna Plecha, MD, Chair Department of Radiology, Radiologist-in-Chief, and Ida and Irwin Haber and Wei-Shen Chin, MD Chair in Radiology, UH. “We know what it means to implement AI solutions, monitor them and closely examine the procedural and workflow issues that are essential for optimal clinical deployment of AI technologies.”

Experts at UH are heavily engaged and well-versed in testing, evaluating and creating new AI clinical practice solutions, accelerating their transfer from bench to bedside. To be recognized as an AI program at the forefront of medicine in this exciting and rapidly growing field is a notable milestone.

The national ACR® recognition affirms that deployment of AI technologies at UH is built on best practices, outlines expert consensus-based building blocks of infrastructure, and includes processes and governance in AI implementation in real-world practice.

To obtain national recognition, UH demonstrated compliance within the tenets of the ACR^® program. Participation in ARCH-AI can help radiology practices provide safe and effective implementation of AI products and help radiologists provide better patient care. 

ARCH-AI site recognition criteria include:

• Establishing an interdisciplinary AI governance group.
• Maintaining an inventory of AI algorithms with detailed documentation.
• Ensuring adherence to security and compliance measures.
• Engaging in diligent review and selection of AI algorithms.
• Documenting use cases and training procedures.
• Monitoring algorithm performance, including safety and effectiveness.
• Participating in the Assess-AI national AI registry for performance benchmarking.

Growth in AI application throughout the health system helps generate next-generation approaches to care.

“Innovation in healthcare is the driving force behind changing the standard-of-care, says Daniel Simon, MD, President of Academic & External Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer and the Ernie and Patti Novak Chair in Health Care Leadership for UH. “The recognition by American College of Radiology is an important validation of all our efforts to explore, innovate and transform medical care by way of new research, collaboration and implementation of new technologies and treatment approaches for the benefit of all our patients.”

The Department of Radiology will receive an ACR Recognition badge to display in their waiting rooms and lobbies to demonstrate to their communities, patients, payers and referring physicians that they are committed to integrating AI in a safe, responsible manner that allows them to provide the best possible modern healthcare.

Throughout UH, AI technologies are emerging as an effective tool for advancing patient care, enabling enhanced responsiveness, greater diagnostic precision, and more personalized medical treatments. Use of AI-operated systems also help automate and streamline repetitive administrative tasks, boosting efficiency and allowing for more patient-centered care practices.

“In the world we live in today, we can no longer say that AI is going to come to one area of medicine or another,” says Dr. Leonardo Kayat Bittencourt. “It is a reality, a pervasive tool and methodology of deploying technology that is part of everything. So, almost everything we do in healthcare will be affected by AI in some way.”

As Vice Chair of Innovation in Radiology, Dr. Kayat Bittencourt strives to broaden and advance AI innovations from the development phase up to clinical implementation throughout UH. Through the RadiCLE (Radiology AI and Diagnostic Innovation Collaborative) program, he is cultivating new and ongoing collaborations and data enablement with vendors and corporate partners outside of UH to maximize the development and validations of new AI tools, in a way that best serves the system’s diverse patient population.

Almost 18 months ago, the Department of Radiology at UH partnered with UH Ventures, the health system’s innovation and commercialization engine, to launch RadiCLE. The effort brought together the research expertise in artificial intelligence applications among radiologists throughout the health system. RadiCLE collaborates with start-ups worldwide to validate emerging AI radiology technologies, such as algorithms that promise to identify patient fractures or strokes.

Through all its initiatives, RadiCLE promotes innovation and the seamless adoption of AI technologies. It partners with companies by curating robust and diverse anonymized datasets of diseases and conditions, conducting clinical studies, and providing the essential clinical expertise to understand specific problems in question.