Surveying the Landscape
This year, IR Quarterly is bringing you Surveying the Landscape, a multi-media exploration of the depth and scope of IR practice models, challenges and opportunities. As part of this project, we’re inviting you to share your workforce stories for a chance to be featured!
The trouble with triage
Establishing a standardized triage protocol By Jason Chiang, MD, PhD, and Elena Drews, MD
I
f you or your facility could benefit from the implementation of a standardized triage protocol, then researchers at the University of
California, Los Angeles, would like to hear from you.
In 2024, a SIR Connect Open Forum discussion revealed that IRs across the country were struggling with inconsistency and a lack of consensus on what a gold-standard IR triage process should look like.
“Interventional radiologists demonstrate some of the most varied practice patterns in all of medicine. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ national standard,” said Jason Chiang, MD, PhD, and Elena Drews, MD, of UCLA’s Department of Radiology. “Minor procedures, like paracenteses and thoracenteses, may be done by IR in some places, but by internal medicine in others. Not to mention the variability in staffing, resource availability and equipment.”
However, other specialties have seen substantial results from establishing a standardized triage framework, and many feel that IR would benefit as well.
18 IRQ | FALL 2025
“The main benefits are twofold,” said Drs. Chiang and Drews. “First, it creates consistency and clarity in expectations for clinicians, trainees and referring teams. Second, it has the potential to improve patient care by reducing delays to treatment.”
Even a simple ranking or scoring system helps align priorities, streamline communication and ensures that the most urgent cases receive timely attention, they said. And over time, that consistency can serve to strengthen IR’s role and leadership in the hospital ecosystem as a team that delivers reliable, structured and life-saving care.
To make this a reality, Drs. Chiang and Drews, supported by Tyler Callese, MD, of UCLA, and Steven J. Citron, MD, FSIR, of Emory, have established a research survey on IR triaging, with the hope of establishing a standardized system.
“What we are trying to do is not to eliminate the nuance between practices, but to create broad consensus that brings consistency and clarity, while still leaving room for local practice patterns and individual clinical judgement,” Drs. Chiang and Drews said. “Ultimately, the goal is to set shared expectations
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