The Radiology Events Register (RAER)

Aims of the Project

• To collect data on systematic errors that occur in diagnostic radiology;
• To classify and analyse the data to gain a better understanding of the types of incidents that occur, their contributing factors and outcomes;
• To publish the information collected in peer reviewed journals.

What is an incident?

There are multiple variations of definitions of what constitutes an incident. The project uses the Australian Council of Quality and Safety in Health Care's definition that states: "any event or circumstance which could have, or did lead to unintended and/or unnecessary harm to a person."

This definition includes unplanned events, or complications, such as airway problems, reactions to medications, episodes of bleeding, inappropriate placement of devices, medication management errors etc. These types of incidents are relatively easy to record as they usually have a well defined start point and their outcomes and sequelae may be well known.

Incidents also include perceptual errors and missed or incorrect diagnostic issues. The project acknowledges that most of these incidents are difficult to capture as they are mostly discovered at a different time.

How does it work?

A secure website for reporting incidents is attached to this website. Radiologists will report an incident via a secure 'notification' page on this website. The 'notification' page contains both free text and coded fields. The 'notification' information is stored on an AIMS database located at the APSF.

Specialist classifiers will analyse the notification information and classify it using the HIT Classification embedded in AIMS. The HIT Classification contains both generic classification structures and a specialty radiology dataset.

Periodically and at the end of the project, data will be analysed and sent to participating institutions.

The results from the project will be jointly published by the RANZCR and the APSF.