The American College of Radiology (ACR) announced Thursday that it has updated its standards for liver cancer screening and surveillance ultrasound exams. These new changes to the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) were made to “improve communication with referring clinicians” and advance the overall quality of care being provided to patients. The updated system is a 24-page document available for free on the ACR’s website.

Claude B. Sirlin, MD, chair of the ACR Committee on LI-RADS, said in a prepared statement that this update was a part of the college’s goal to keep LI-RADS up to date with the latest information.

“The new version of LI-RADS highlights technique, interpretation, reporting and data collection for screening and surveillance in patients the need for detecting liver cancer early, when it is potentially curable, by screening at-risk patients,” Sirlin said. “We continually strive to improve LI-RADS to enhance communication with referring clinicians, speed accurate diagnosis and improve patient care.”

“This represents the first standardized approach for interpreting and reporting these exams,” Aya Kamaya, MD, chair of the U.S. LI-RADS Working Group, said in the same statement.