Methodology
How recommendations are made
What RadProtocol does
RadProtocol helps clinical staff choose an MRI or CT order code from their department's approved order list, and suggests an Ontario priority level from P1 to P4. It does not diagnose, and it does not replace the radiologist or the ordering clinician, who makes the final decision.
Where the recommendations come from
Every result lists the sources it relied on, under Sources. They are always drawn from the following.
- Your department's approved order list The MRI and CT order codes your department has approved, each with the clinical indications it is approved for. The assistant can only choose a code from this list, and each result shows the chosen code's approved indications and the version of the list it came from.
- Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario): Diagnostic imaging definitions The provincial definitions of the four priority levels and their target times.
- Ontario Ministry of Health: Wait times for diagnostic imaging How Ontario assigns and measures priority levels for diagnostic imaging, in plain language.
- Your department's priority document, where one is uploaded A department can upload its own priority rules. They are applied first, and the provincial definitions cover anything they do not.
How a recommendation is made
- Details that look like patient identifiers, such as names, health-card numbers, dates of birth, and phone numbers, are detected and replaced before the request goes any further.
- The redacted request and the approved list are given to an AI language model (from OpenAI), which must choose from the list. The service checks the answer and discards any code that is not on the list before anything is shown.
- The model explains its choice, names any information that would change it, and reports its confidence. Below the department's confidence threshold, or when a contraindication is reported, the result is marked for radiologist review. A P1 priority is always marked for review.
- Every recommendation is recorded in the department's activity log so it can be reviewed later.
Limits
- A recommendation is decision support, not a diagnosis or an order. Confirm the order in your hospital's ordering system.
- MRI safety screening, contrast screening, renal-function checks, and pregnancy screening remain mandatory and happen outside this tool.
- An AI model can be wrong. When a result conflicts with your clinical judgement, discuss the request with the radiologist.
Questions
Questions about how RadProtocol works can be sent to joshossip10@gmail.com.