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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Acad Radiol. 2013 Dec;20(12):1511–1520. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2013.10.003

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Streamlined model for evaluation of a patient with a pulmonary nodule. A patient is first seen by a primary provider, who identifies a history of smoking. The primary physician then refers the patient to a radiologist who selects the most appropriate screening study (1). If the screening study identifies an abnormality, the radiologist enrolls the patient in a standardized surveillance protocol (2). If surveillance imaging reveals suspicious behavior of the nodule, a chest biopsy is performed (3). If the biopsy reveals malignancy, the radiologist refers the patient onward for subspecialist care (4).