Do image-rich radiology reports create value?

Referring physicians and radiologists both see significant value in the use of image-rich radiology reports (IRRRs), according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Is it time for imaging leaders to make such reports the new standard?

“As the healthcare paradigm shifts away from a volume-based delivery of care toward a value-based model, radiologists must find creative ways to deliver ‘value-based’ radiologic care,” wrote lead author Bhavik N. Patel, MD, MBA, of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues. “Given the role of radiologists in the patient care chain, one way to impact patient care is through the referring provider using radiology reports. Meaningful radiology reports can translate into improved outcomes and therefore allow radiologists to add value to both referring providers and patients.”

Patel et al. explained that IRRRs—which are basically radiology reports with images directly imbedded within the text—have been discussed as a potential part of radiology for a long time now, but they have not gained much momentum.

Curious if the market would react positively to such reporting, the authors conducted in-person interviews with 36 clinicians and 36 radiologists about the potential implementation of IRRRs. During the interviews, each participant was shown a mock-up of a traditional workflow with text-only radiology reports, followed up by a mock-up of how workflow would look with a IRRR. They were then asked to comment on which workflow they prefer.

Overall, 68 percent of the participants said IRRRs would improve communication and dialogue between the radiologist and the referring physician. When asked about where such reports would be beneficial, 58 percent of referring physicians and 56 percent of radiologists said they would be useful both in the office and off site.  

Eighty-three percent of referring physicians said an IRRR could have a “moderate to high” improvement on workflow.

Meanwhile, 92 percent of radiologists said IRRR are a valuable concept, and 89 percent said they would be open to putting forth the effort to create them. And while much of the discussion about IRRRs involves how they can benefit referring physicians, there is also a way it could help out radiologists.

“A few radiologists stated that such a tool might also be valuable to them and impact their workflow, as it could potentially eliminate the burden of correlating findings from prior text reports with findings on the prior examination as they interpret follow-up examinations,” the authors wrote.