Multimedia Radiology Reports Enhance Communication with Referring Physicians

Written by Ronny Bachrach on February 10, 2015. Posted in Digital Radiography and PACS, RIS, Software

Following comprehensive medical imaging exams, radiologists have to review in-depth reports that detail diagnoses for referring clinicians. These records used to be entirely text-based, but interactive multimedia reports have grown in popularity and changed the way health care providers communicate with one another.

Reports essential to quality of care
When patients are sent for further exams with radiologists, referring doctors have to wait for diagnoses before they can make suggestions for treatments. Radiology reports are often the most important aspects of health care communication in any hospital, making it critical that they be clear and concise to physicians.

However, it took time for reports capable of multimedia formatting to be implemented due to several technological hurdles, like seamless integration with PACS or electronic medical records. These systems would further enhance the quality of digital reports by importing key images within the text and generating the document on their own.

Addition of multimedia improves reports
Led by Andrew Rosenkrantz, M.D., researchers from New York University Langone Medical Center wanted to determine the overall effectiveness of radiology reports in their facility. According to the authors, standard text has multiple limitations that impact clinical workflow, such as potential miscommunication of symptoms or health conditions and low quality descriptions of complex malignancies.

Rosenkrantz and his colleagues developed an enhanced reporting tool at NYU that was intended to be integrated into existing enterprise technologies. The system would embed images into radiology reports and incorporate tabular tracking of lesions during digital imaging exams. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, revealed physicians' positive reception to the tool. It enhanced clinician communication and patient care across the enterprise. With multimedia included, doctors could review more detailed information than ever before and track changes to scans with ease.

The NYU study made it clear that multimedia reports could change communication for the better, but another team from Emory University decided to investigate the effects further.

Doctors prefer multimedia reports
Presenting at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, Gelareh Sadigh, M.D., and her colleagues distributed a survey to approximately 200 physicians at Emory. The participants included 50 neurosurgeons, 50 medical oncologists, 50 pulmonologists and 50 radiation oncologists, AuntMinnie.com reported.

Each physician had more than two years of experience after residency and personally referred roughly 10 patients to a radiology department per week. The participants were shown a series of slides that included both traditional and multimedia radiology reports. Afterward, the providers were asked 22 questions about their patient demographics and formatting they use in their offices.

Seventy-eight percent claimed they were satisfied with their current reports, but 79 percent felt that the addition of multimedia components would be an improvement for their workflow. Despite the initial hesitation, the majority of surveyed physicians would recommend the interactive reports to their peers.

The inclusion of multimedia clearly can enhance communication between radiologists and referring physicians. While the transition might be more complicated than a simple vendor switch, the capabilities of interactive reports represent the opportunity to reform an enterprise for the better.

Contact Viztek for more information.

Ronny Bachrach

Ronny Bachrach

Marketing Director at Viztek LLC
Responsible for all marketing activities including, press, advertising, trade show coordination, website management, dealer and customer communications.
Ronny Bachrach
Don't be selfish share with your friends...
Share on LinkedIn0Share on Google+0Share on Facebook0Tweet about this on TwitterEmail this to someoneBuffer this page
Sign up for our Newsletter

Contact Details