Possibly. It is important to note that the term "standard-of-care" often has different connotations when referring to medical imaging versus other types of clinical care. In most settings, this term is used to describe examinations and procedures that can be billed to a patient's medical insurance because they are considered to be consistent with the standard treatment regimen for the patient's condition (i.e., they are medically necessary, not experimental). In medical imaging, however, the term "standard-of-care" is often used to describe the imaging parameters themselves rather than the billable status of the exam -- a standard-of-care scan is one that follows the routine parameters (slice thickness, scan geometry, etc.) defined by our radiologists.

Thus, a patient participating in a clinical trial can have an MRI scan of the brain, for example, that can be billed to his/her insurance (i.e., it is billable as a standard-of-care scan), but the scan's parameters may be explicitly dictated by the trial protocol, making them different from our Radiology Department's routine MRI parameters (i.e., it is not a standard-of-care scan from an imaging perspective).

The HIRO can help you make this determination. It is not uncommon for us to find that, although all of your trial's imaging exams will be billed as standard-of-care, the sponsor (or CRO or core lab) has included some strict imaging guidelines that are different from our Radiology Department's standard procedures. And even if we determine that the imaging for your trial is considered standard-of-care from both a clinical and medical imaging perspective, the HIRO would still be happy to assist you with your trial's imaging if desired. Note that if you need a de-identified copy of a exam, the HIRO may still charge for this service -- charges for HIRO services are not related to an exam's billable status. As such, a de-identified copy of a scan for an industry-funded clinical trial, for example, will still incur a charge from the HIRO, even if the scan itself was considered standard-of-care.

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