iRefer guidelines

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The publication iRefer Guidelines: Making the best use of clinical radiology is now in its eighth edition . It is published by The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) in the UK. iRefer comprises a comprehensive set of evidence-based guidelines to help doctors and other health professionals decide on the most appropriate imaging to perform in almost any clinical scenario.

History

The guidelines were first published in November 1989 as "Making the Best Use of a Department of Clinical Radiology: Guidelines for Doctors". The guidelines were always intended to be used by clinicians and other health professionals in the day-to-day practice in the clinic, on the ward, and in the reporting room and therefore were, and are, issued as a small pocket-sized spiral-bound book which can fit easily into a doctor's white coat side pocket.

The 7 edition, published in 2012 were the first guidelines to be published in an electronic version. At this time the guidelines were re-branded as iRefer. Initially, there was an online version, soon after it was released as a downloadable app (iOS and Android versions) for mobile devices. It was initially priced at £2.99 per user. This 7 edition was available free to use by National Health Service (NHS) professionals working in the UK; access was via the N3 network, the NHS's own virtual private network. Funding support was provided by the Department of Health (DH) of the UK government.

Unfortunately, the DH has not continued this financial support for the new 8 edition. Therefore unless a user is a subscribing member or Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists they now need to pay to access the guidelines.

The latest version of the guidelines, the 8 edition was published in May 2017. This edition is not currently available as a downloadable app. The 7 edition app has not been updated to work with iOS 11, therefore anyone using an iPhone which has been upgraded to the latest iOS firmware cannot use the app.

Publication history
  • 1 edition: 1989
  • 2 ed: 1993
  • 3ed: 1995
  • 4ed: 1999
  • 5 ed: 2003
  • 6 ed: 2007
  • 7 ed: 2012
  • ​8 ed: 2017 (current)