Stories are always better with pictures, and that may also be true for radiology reports. A Stanford University team recently determined that reports with embedded images would be of considerable interest to referring physicians, and they may even yield improvements in patient care and outcomes.
In a survey of 142 referring physicians, a large majority of respondents indicated they agreed or strongly agreed that reports with embedded images improve the quality of interactions with radiologists and would significantly improve referring physician satisfaction. In addition, more than 90% agreed or strongly agreed that having access to significant images enhances understanding of text-based reports, while 60% felt strongly or very strongly that multimedia reports would significantly improve patient care and outcomes.
"Creating accessible, readable, and automatic multimedia reports should be a high priority to enhance the practice and satisfaction of referring physicians, improve patient care, and emphasize the critical role radiology plays in current medical care," wrote lead author Dr. Lina Nayak and colleagues in the December issue of Academic Radiology (Vol. 20:12, pp. 1577-1583).
Radiology reports are the most common way radiologists communicate with referring physicians and patients, but radiologists continue to produce reports in much the same way their predecessors did 100 years ago.
The group thought that adding images would help others better understand the text of the report, Nayak said. To test the theory and to quantify referring physicians' perceived value of multimedia reports over text-based reports, the researchers surveyed 1,800 attending physicians from a range of specialties at their large tertiary care medical center between July 2012 and November 2012.
Of the 1,800 physicians, 160 (8.9%) responded to the 24-question electronic survey, which gathered information on number of years in practice and radiology report usage, as well as general perceptions about reports with embedded images. The survey also asked respondents whether or not they provide access to an electronically formatted report of their radiology study; if they do, they received an additional question about their perception of patient satisfaction.
The referring physicians were able to provide additional comments in a free-text section, and they could also view two sample multimedia reports. Of the 160 respondents, 142 (89%) indicated they would want to look at images while reviewing a final text report. They then completed the rest of the survey.
Survey results were as follows:
- 91% agreed or strongly agreed that having access to the significant/key images when reviewing a text-based report enhances their understanding of the report content
- 77% agreed or strongly agreed that multimedia reports would significantly improve referring physician satisfaction
- 73% agreed or strongly agreed that reports with embedded images could improve the quality of interactions with radiologists
- 68% agreed or strongly agreed that having access to significant/key images embedded in an electronic version of the text report would significantly reduce the time required to understand/process the information in the report
- 60% agreed or strongly agreed that multimedia reports would significantly improve patient care and outcomes
In addition, 46 respondents included free-text responses, and most were enthusiastic about implementing multimedia reports, according to the researchers. Some did express concern, however, about the time it would take to download the multimedia reports, particularly when accessing them from home, they noted.
Nonetheless, the results support the value of embedded images in reports, according to the authors.
"The results of our study suggest that multimedia reports have a very high perceived value amongst referring physicians and may have the potential for enhancing the practice of referring physicians, improving patient care and satisfaction, and highlighting the critical role radiology plays in current medical care," they concluded."Therefore, creation of easily accessible, readable, and automatic multimedia reports should be a high priority."
The results could also apply to many different practice settings, Nayak told AuntMinnie.com.
The next phase of the Stanford research effort may include implementing the survey at other institutions and other practice environments, such as in the community setting, she said. They may also seek to identify the needs of different groups of referring subspecialists to enhance the development of multimedia reports, such as by including Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), for example.
"Further, developing a pilot for generating automatic multimedia reports may prove to be very informative," she said.
