Patient and public awareness of interventional radiology (IR) remains low, according to a study published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
The authors surveyed patients at the University of California, San Diego to track patient awareness and tracked Internet traffic data and search results to track public awareness. Overall, 65 percent of radiology department outpatients had “no prior knowledge” of IR. Of patients who were aware of IR, 57 percent reported having a positive impression and 39 percent reported having either a neutral impression or no impression at all. No patients had a negative impression of IR.
In addition, IR search volumes on Google were much lower than similar specialties. IR constituted just 15.9 percent of urology’s search volumes, for instance, and 27.9 percent of cardiology’s search volumes.
“Using a combination of methods to assess patient and public awareness of IR and internet visibility of IR relative to similar specialties across time, this study demonstrated that IR continues to suffer from relative obscurity,” wrote Isabel Newton MD, PhD, with the department of radiology at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues.
So, what can be done to spread the word about IR? Newton and colleagues proposed three strategies for increasing public awareness among patients and the general public:
- Invest in strategic marketing, including a strong Internet presence with links to quality public-facing IR education and outreach materials
- Strengthen relationships with referring physicians to forge robust referral patterns
- Capitalize on episodic and longitudinal patient interactions to provide education about IR and the breadth of conditions treated.
“A critical element to all three strategies is to use clear and consistent language when referring to minimally invasive, image-guided procedures to reduce confusion and reinforce broad recognition,” the authors wrote.
Of course, increasing public awareness is about more than just helping the specialty; it helps patients as well. “Minimally invasive, image-guided procedures offer lower morbidity and mortality than most alternatives, and sometimes they represent a patient’s only viable option,” the authors concluded. “Since a lack of health literacy has been associated with poorer healthcare outcomes, it is imperative that interventional radiologists take the lead in increasing public awareness about the cutting-edge procedures that they offer in order to empower patients with the information they need to make the best healthcare decisions for themselves.”
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.