CLAUD – IT: Clinical Audit Implementation in Europe – a practical and multidisciplinary approach

CLAUD-IT is a 36-month project (September 2024 – August 2027) co-funded by the European Union under the EU4Health programme 2021-2027, EU4H-2023-PJ-05 Action Grants for a project on the implementation of the agenda for medical applications of ionising radiation (SAMIRA action plan) – Organisation of clinical audit campaigns as a tool to improve the quality and safety of medical applications of ionising radiation. The project brings together 13 beneficiaries and one affiliated institution from 10 countries.

The objectives of CLAUD-IT are to improve clinical audit practice in EU Member States, to promote the implementation of clinical audit in radiology and nuclear medicine, and thus to improve quality and safety for patients.

There is strong scientific evidence that clinical audit is a key component in improving the quality and safety of medical imaging. Therefore, it is officially recommended to be widely implemented in clinical practice. In addition, according to the European Basic Safety Standards Directive, 2013/59/Euratom, all member states are legally required to conduct clinical audits “in accordance with national procedures”. Despite this, clinical audits are still under-implemented in most EU Member States.

CLAUD-IT builds on the results of the QuADRANT and EU-JUST-CT projects, as well as resources developed by the European Society of Radiology and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, with the ultimate aim of further improving the justification and optimisation, and thus the overall quality and safety, of radiology and nuclear medicine procedures. An implementation board will be set up, consisting of national implementation teams from the participating countries, including representatives from national radiology and nuclear medicine societies, authorities/agencies responsible for clinical audit in the respective countries, to plan the wider roll-out and support of clinical audit campaigns and to ensure that clinical audit is embedded as a core element of the wider healthcare system.

Clinical audit in radiology will be based on ESPERANTO, the ESR’s guide to clinical audit in radiology in its 3rd edition, with an updated 4th version being developed as part of the CLAUD-IT project. For nuclear medicine, a specific 1st version of ESPERANTO will be developed under this action. In addition, CLAUD-IT will develop a training programme for auditors as well as supporting documents and guidelines. All materials published under this action will be collected and made available through an open access repository, which will act as a one-stop-shop for all information and resources related to clinical audit in radiology and nuclear medicine.

The project will support Member States in the implementation of clinical audit. CLAUD-IT will pilot audit campaigns in radiology and nuclear medicine in 9 EU Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Spain) to promote implementation in clinical routine. Clinical audits will be carried out in two rounds during the project: In the first round, the 11 hospitals that are members of the consortium will conduct clinical audits in radiology and nuclear medicine, using 3 selected templates per specialty and following the common methodology developed in the project, adapted to their local settings, with the support of 2 external experts (one for each specialty). After analysing the feedback and considering the lessons learned, a second round of audits will be organised in a further 3-6 hospitals per participating country, recruited with the support of the Implementation Board and supported by two experts each from the local audit teams of the first round of audits.

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CLAUD-IT: Objectives

• Assess the current state of the art in all 9 participating Member States to identify new developments since the completion of the QuADRANT project as well as existing infrastructures and stakeholders.

• Prepare practical, concise and evidence-based audit material and related training material for radiology and nuclear medicine and to make these available in a central repository in order to provide a “one-stop-shop” for stakeholders.

• Hold practical stakeholder training to conduct clinical audits under external guidance.

• Raise awareness for the importance of clinical audit by communicating its mandatory character as laid down in the BSSD and explaining the great impact it can have on daily professional practice as well as its contribution to higher quality care and patient safety. Convene the stakeholders in an effort to develop clinical audit strategies and campaigns.

  
  

Facts and figures:

Coordinator: European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR)

Number of partners: 14 (13 beneficiaries, 1 affiliated entity)

Start date: 1st of September 2024

End date: 31st of August 2027

Total grant amount: €981 055,18

EU funding: €784 844,15

CLAUD-IT is co-funded under the EU4Health Programme 2021–2027 under grant agreement no. 101160903.

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Funded by the European Union under the EU4Health Programme 2021 – 2027 under Grant Agreement no. 101160903. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.