Imaging decisions in the real world: Balancing cost, context, and clinical need

Advanced imaging has transformed veterinary diagnostics, but CT and MRI are not always the most appropriate next step, or not available or affordable. Equally, some cases may benefit from early cross-sectional imaging and/or early referral, or specialist input via advice or formal teleradiology services.

This session explores how contextualised care can be applied to the diagnostic imaging work-up of patients, guiding decision-making by balancing clinical need, patient and owner circumstances, available resources, and diagnostic value. The importance of matching the imaging work-up to the clinical question(s) to be answered and ensuring diagnostic quality of imaging studies will be discussed. The session will offer a combination of general principles as well as case-based examples, to provide a practical framework for delivering high-value, patient-centred imaging care in everyday practice.

• - Understand the relevance of contextualised care in respect to the imaging work-up of patients as well as broad principles and factors to consider for a contextualised imaging approach
• - Recognise situations in which radiography and other first-line imaging modalities can provide sufficient diagnostic information and those where early specialist/referral input may represent a more effective approach.
• - Understand the importance of diagnostic image quality and appropriate protocol selection for achieving accurate diagnoses and avoiding repeated examinations.