The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) plan to launch a medical 3D printing clinical data registry to collect 3D printing data at the point of clinical care.
"The creation of the joint RSNA-ACR 3D Printing Registry is essential for the advancement of clinical 3D printing. The registry will allow us to collect data in support of the appropriate use of this technology and its value in clinical decision making, and this collaboration between RSNA and ACR shows the importance of 3D printing to radiology," said William Weadock, M.D., professor of radiology at the University of Michigan and chair of the RSNA 3D Printing Special Interest Group (SIG), in a prepared statement.
This announcement follows the release of four new Category III Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes for the use of 3D printing to create anatomic models and anatomic guides. Registry data will enable essential analyses to demonstrate the clinical value of 3D printing, which has been challenging to date because of the rich diversity of clinical indications, the different technologies for generating physical models from medical images and the complexity of the models.
Medical models and surgical guides have been 3D printed for well over a decade, as niche applications — and without CPT codes, noted Frank Rybicki, M.D., Ph.D., FACR, chair of the ACR Committee on Appropriateness Criteria and founding chair of the RSNA SIG. For example, craniomaxillofacial care providers generally accept that 3D printing is valuable and integral to patient care, he said, in a statement. "However, when applying for CPT codes, it became clear that this 'general acceptance' lacked peer-reviewed literature to demonstrate value. This registry will supply data to benchmark the value of this subspecialty."
A joint ACR-RSNA committee will govern the registry intended to pilot in the fall of 2019.
The 3D printing registry will be hosted by the ACR's National Radiology Data Registry system, which is a leading platform for clinical quality registries in imaging. NRDR currently houses six registries with more than 6,500 participant sites and over 150 million cumulative cases. Information about this new registry, including details about how to participate, will be posted to the NRDR website as it becomes available.
