The diagnostic radiology life cycle guidance
Date: 2025
Standardised terminology is fundamental to effective patient care. It is required to facilitate working between institutions or across networks and is increasingly important as Artificial Intelligence is further integrated into radiology working practices.
In this document, we define a standard workflow for diagnostic imaging episodes (The “Diagnostic Radiology Life Cycle”) from the point of referral to result delivery by defining and detailing each of the timepoints on the journey of an examination through three key stages: pre-acquisition, image acquisition and post-acquisition.
When reading this guidance please consider the following reflective questions:
- What are the benefits to my service of implementing this guidance?
- What are the key barriers to implementing this guidance in my service?
- Does the guidance incite any ideas for quality improvement projects that I, or others in my service, might take forward?
