title: Traditional text-only versus multimedia-enhanced radiology reporting: referring physicians' perceptions of value.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate referring physicians' perceptions of multimedia-enhanced radiology reporting (MERR) as an alternative to traditional text-only radiology reporting. MERR supplements text-only reports by embedding user-friendly interactive hyperlinks to key images and graphically plotting target lesion size longitudinally over time.
  
  
  METHODS
  Of 402 physicians responding to a web-based survey, 200 (50 each medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, and pulmonologists) practicing in the United States fulfilled criteria to complete an online survey with questions focusing on satisfaction with current text-only reports and the perceived value of image- and data-enriched reporting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean respondent age was 46 years, with a mean of 15 years in posttraining clinical practice (85% men; 47% from academic medical centers). Although 80% were satisfied with the format of their current text-only radiology reports, 80% believed that MERR would represent an improvement. The most commonly reported advantages of MERR were "improved understanding of radiology findings by correlating images to text reports" (86%) and "easier access to images while monitoring progression of a disease/condition" (79%). Of the 28% of physicians with concerns about MERR implementation, the most common were that it was "too time intensive" (53%) and "the clinic workflow does not allow itself to view reports in such a fashion" (42%). Physicians indicated a strong increased likelihood of preferentially referring patients to (80%) and recommending peers to (79%) facilities that offer MERR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most specialist referring physicians believe that interactive image- and data-embedded MERR represents an improvement over current text-only radiology reporting. Compared with current report formatting, most would preferentially refer patients and peers to facilities offering more meaningful image- and graphically enriched reporting platforms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Electronic address: gsadigh@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Gelareh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sadigh
authors.affiliation: IDR Medical GmbH, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hertweck
authors.affiliation: Carestream Health, Inc, Rochester, New York.
authors.forename: Cristine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.affiliation: IDR Medical GmbH, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, Reston, Virginia; Department of Health Administration and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Travis S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, Reston, Virginia.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duszak
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004282:Documentation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019212:Multimedia / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014956:Writing
keywords: Multimedia-enhanced radiology reporting; perceived value; radiology communication; referring physician