title: The challenges, opportunities, and imperative of structured reporting in medical imaging.
abstract: Despite dramatic innovation in medical imaging and information system technologies, the radiology report has remained stagnant for more than a century. Structured reporting was created in the hopes of addressing well-documented deficiencies in report content and organization but has largely failed in its adoption due to concerns over workflow and productivity. A number of political, economical, and clinical quality-centric initiatives are currently taking place within medicine which will dramatically change the medical landscape including Pay for Performance, Evidence-Based Medicine, and the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. These will collectively enhance efforts to improve quality in reporting, stimulate new technology development, and counteract the impending threat of commoditization within radiology. Structured reporting offers a number of unique opportunities and advantages over traditional free text reporting and will provide a means for the radiology community to add value to its most important service deliverable the radiology report.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Veterans Affairs Maryland Healthcare System, 10 North Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. breiner1@comcast.net
authors.forename: Bruce I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Reiner
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D004526:Efficiency; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D011871:Radiology / Q000458:organization & administration; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D049250:Speech Recognition Software / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014941:Work Simplification; D057188:Workflow