title: Radiology reporting: a closed-loop cycle from order entry to results communication.
abstract: With the increasing prevalence of PACS over the past decade, face-to-face image review among health care providers has become a rarity. This change has resulted in increasing dependence on fast and accurate communication in radiology. Turnaround time expectations are now conveyed in minutes rather than hours or even days. Ideal modern radiology communication is a closed-loop cycle with multiple interoperable applications contributing to the final product. The cycle starts with physician order entry, now often performed through the electronic medical record, with clinical decision support to ensure that the most effective imaging study is ordered. Radiology reports are now almost all in electronic format. The majority are produced using speech recognition systems. Optimization of this software use can alleviate some, if not all, of the inherent user inefficiencies in this type of reporting. Integrated third-party software applications that provide data mining capability are extremely helpful in both academic and clinical settings. The closed-loop ends with automated communication of imaging results. Software products for this purpose should facilitate use of levels of alert, automated escalation to providers, and recording of audit trails of reports received. The multiple components of reporting should be completely interoperable with each other, as well as with the PACS, the RIS, and the electronic medical record. This integration will maximize radiologist efficiency and minimize the possibility of communication error.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia (retired). Electronic address: dlweiss2020@gmail.com.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: woojin.kim@uphs.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Woojin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology, Otolaryngology, and Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh; and Department of Neuroradiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Barton F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Branstetter
authors.affiliation: Departments of Imaging Informatics and Radiology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Luciano M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Prevedello
mesh_terms: D004282:Documentation / Q000379:methods*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D062527:Meaningful Use; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D057188:Workflow
keywords: Reporting; computerized physician order entry (CPOE); data mining; decision support; results communication; speech recognition