Intersociety Conference Urges Adoption of Structured Reports
Aside from referrers’ clear-cut preference for structured reports, radiologists have added cause to adopt the use of structured reporting. At its annual meeting last summer, the 2007 Intersociety Conference urged the adoption of structured reports, according to an article by N. Reed Dunnick, MD, and Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, in the May 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Because the reports are organized into sections that are consistent and that use standardized language, they are more easily mined for key information that is increasingly necessary to document quality metrics linked to pay-for-performance programs, the authors wrote. While there are a few structured reporting systems for radiology on the market, radiologists can make progress toward satisfying referrers’ preference for structured reports by using the standard macros available in most speech-recognition programs. The conference participants also supported the continued use of free text, which enables radiologists to expand on findings.
There remains, however, the challenge of creating those macros, and the conference participants urged the creation of best-practices structured reports using a standard radiology lexicon across all reports for examinations, interventions, and radiation oncology. The conference suggested that professional societies take the lead in developing these best-practices reports, enlisting subspecialists and referring physicians to develop the report templates. The reports could then be adapted for local conditions.
Communication of results was also addressed by the conference, which urged enhanced communications for findings:
- for which urgent intervention is required;
- not anticipated by the patient’s presentation; or
- In a final report, when they are significantly different from the preliminary interpretation.