Emergency Radiology

The Emergency Radiology Division was established at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1999 as the coordination of radiology services in the emergency department (ED) evolved to better align with the clinical services of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgery.

In addition to BWH coverage, the Division provides 24/7 emergency radiology attending coverage to regional community hospitals and radiology practices through its Brigham NightWatch Teleradiology Service.

Relationships to Other Departments

The Emergency Radiology section has developed strong relationships with several divisions in the departments of medicine and surgery, most notably those of emergency medicine, trauma surgery, and the emergency surgical service. Our imaging modality rooms are all located directly within the ED, and our reading room is centrally located in the ED, resulting in an unparalleled level of direct face to face consultation at all points in the imaging round trip. We are frequently consulted about which exam is most appropriate for the clinical scenario, or how to best modify or optimize an exam to accommodate patient factors. Face-to-face review of imaging exams with care teams is the norm in order to clarify results and discuss impact on patient care decisions.

We participate in monthly multidisciplinary trauma meetings and bimonthly emergency medicine morbidity and mortality conferences. We are actively engaged with emergency medicine in numerous ongoing quality improvement efforts, and engage our relevant counterpart services in designing optimized clinical imaging algorithms in a variety of well-defined clinical scenarios.