Evidence-Based Imaging in Pediatrics: Clinical Decision Support for Optimized Imaging in Pediatric Care

This book provides evidence-based guidance for pediatric imaging to radiologists, pediatricians, and all subspecialists caring for children, as well as policy advocates. While the majority of pediatric radiology books concentrate on diagnosis, this book highlights how imaging should be used in optimal care, allowing comparisons between different modalities and addressing follow up, complications and the issue of timing of imaging.

The primary objective of this book is to provide a summary of appropriate imaging use in terms of modality and timing based on the best available evidence. The book therefore acts as a resource for optimized clinical care of children and effective decision-making. A secondary objective is to collate the evidence-based practices that constitute quality care for children in the setting of value-based imaging. Radiologists are often in the position of helping clinicians decide when and how to image children with suspected diseases or confirmed diagnoses. However, traditional residency training has done little to fulfill the need for this up-to-date evidence knowledge. Moreover, in spite of furthering subspecialization of the field, the great majority of children’s imaging (and care) occur outside of children’s hospitals, where clinicians and radiologist might need this type of general guidance for establishing best-practices.

The book is divided in two parts, non-diagnostic considerations such as evidence-based imaging, safety, value, and the practice of radiology in low resource settings and a second larger clinical component divided in prenatal, oncology, neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiothoracic, and abdominal imaging. This new edition incorporates changes in practice and guidelines in the decade since the first edition was written with many new chapters in emerging topics including prenatal, oncology and neurological imaging. This is an ideal guide for radiologists, pediatricians, policy advocates, and all healthcare professionals caring for children.

Hansel J. Otero, MD is a core faculty member of the Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness (CPCE) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a practicing pediatric diagnostic radiologist with special interest in advanced genitourinary and cardiovascular imaging. He received his MD from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and is board certified in diagnostic radiology. He completed his radiology residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and pediatric radiology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Otero completed two years of Management and Hospital Administration research fellowships at Brigham & Women's Hospital, an affiliated hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. His main research interest is in health services including imaging utilization and imaging related outcomes. He has over 60 peer-review publications including more than 30 related to health services.

Summer L. Kaplan, MD MS, is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and is Director of Emergency Radiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Kaplan is board certified in diagnostic radiology with a certificate of added qualification in pediatric radiology. She completed both medical school and graduate work in neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kaplan has authored numerous peer-reviewed original research papers on utilization of pediatric imaging in the emergency department and acute inpatient settings. She advises the Clinical Pathways Committee at CHOP on imaging use and has assisted in establishing clinical decision support guidelines for pediatric imaging. Dr. Kaplan also administers multiple interdepartmental quality improvement (QI) projects and teaches QI methodology in global health settings.

L. Santiago Medina
Department of Radiology
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
Miami, Florida, USA

C. Craig Blackmore
Department of Radiology
UW Medical Center
Seattle, Washington, USA

Kimberly E. Applegate

Zionsville, Indiana, USA