Proposal:Medical Imaging

Medical Imaging
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Jeisenbe
Tagging:	healthcare=medical_imaging
Applies to:	node, area
Definition:	A healthcare facility where diagnostic medical imaging (x-ray, ultrasound, MRI etc) is performed
Statistics:
Draft started:	2021-01-11

Proposal

Approve the new feature tag healthcare=medical_imaging to map a dedicated healthcare facility where medical imaging (x-ray, ultrasound, MRI, CT, and related imaging) is performed to help diagnose health problems.

Approve new property tags which may be added to describe the imaging services available at medical imaging facility, or at another healthcare facility such as a hospital or clinic:

• mri=yes/no
• ct=yes/no
• xray=yes/no
• ultrasound=yes/no

Rationale

Most medical imaging is performed inside of hospitals, clinics or doctors offices. However, there are stand-alone medical imaging facilities found next to hospitals or sometimes independenly in commercial areas, where patients may be referred by their doctor for special health imaging. Most of these facilities offer radiography with x-rays as well as ultrasound, and many offer CT scans (computed tomography, aka CAT Scan) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). Some may specialize in one type of imaging modality.

In many countries patients will be require to get a referral or order from their physician to get the test done, but some screening tests might be done without an order.

Currently there is no widely-used, well-documented tag for these facilities, even though they are common in many countries. For example, there are over 11,000 diagnostic medical imaging centers in the USA: https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/number-of-businesses/diagnostic-imaging-centers-united-states/ which is almost twice as many as the number of hospitals.

We also lack tags to describe the presence of an MRI, CT, Ultrasound or X-ray machine and technician in a healthcare facility. Adding tags for these will allow us to more clearly show which services are available at a hospital or clinic. Since the equipment is large, expensive and usually permanently installed, this information is verifiable at publically accessible hospitals and clinics.

This new tag will not be used for interventional radiology facilities, where doctors perform surgeries or invasive operations using imaging for guidance.

It should also not be used to map the location of a mobile ultrasound machine or x-ray machine inside of a clinic, but rather this tag is for a permanent facility.

Features/Pages affected

• healthcare=medical_imaging - Create
• healthcare=* - Edit
• Healthcare - Edit

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.