A clinical decision support pilot program in Minnesota has proved so successful at reducing utilization of expensive imaging diagnostics that it will be rolled out statewide and made available to virtually every resident of the state in 2011, courtesy of a healthcare quality-improvement organization.

As AuntMinnie.com reports, the Bloomington, Minn.-based Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement announced Nov. 10 that it would offer free access to the CDS system to every healthcare provider in the state. At the opening scientific session of the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago on Sunday, Cally Vinz, vice president of clinical products and strategy for ICSI, spoke about how the program has saved Minnesota health insurers millions of dollars since 2007 and increased the appropriateness of ordering certain CT, MRI, PET and nuclear cardiology exams.

In the pilot test, involving 2,300 providers in five major multispecialty practices and one radiology group--plus four commercial payers and the Minnesota Department of Human Services--utilization of high-tech diagnostic tests leveled off in the first year after experiencing rapid growth in early part of last decade.

An 8 percent utilization increase in 2003 had prompted the state legislature to mandate preauthorization programs, and turning to radiology benefit management companies had raised costs for payers and slowed down the approval process, according to Vinz. Several payers and large health systems turned to ICSI to develop a better process.

The CDS system helped save Minnesota payers $84 million between 2007 and 2009, and at least one participating medical group reported that 89.2 percent of head CT, head MRI and lumbar MRI exams had been appropriately ordered, compared to 79.5 percent in a control group. Plus, CDS has saved thousands of hours in labor by shortening the preauthorization process.

"Both patients and their physicians overwhelmingly appreciated the clinical decision-support system," Vinz said Sunday, according to AuntMinnie.com. "They could see the evidence-based recommendations of what exams were most appropriate, schedule an exam on the spot and not experience any surprises or delays.

"Radiologists were as supportive of the system as the ordering physicians," he added. "They felt that their expertise was better used consulting with ordering physicians about complex cases."

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