D.L.: David Liu, PhD. is President and CEO in StructuRad LLC, a software company dedicated to providing Structured Reporting solutions for Radiology.
Purpose: University of Maryland Medical Center entered into a Trial usage of a Structured Reporting solution in order to test and measure the effectiveness of Structured Reporting as a viable alternative to traditional dictation transcription process. Specifically the objective of the trail was to determine if: A) Structured Reporting could replace transcription and improve the overall transcription and preliminary to final report turnaround time of typical reports in a clinical setting. And B) if the actual reporting method and behavior of Attending and Resident Physicians could be changed to accommodate a better or different reporting solution other than transcription.Method and Materials; Once the Structured Reporting solution was completely integrated into our existing legacy RIS environment with incoming exam data and outbound reports a 45 Day Trial period was started where Reporting Metrics and Methods were documented and compared for Structured Reporting against the traditional dictation / transcription process. Data captured and analyzed included overall time to create a report as well as the overall lapse time to create and approve a report in our RIS environment. Results: The results of this trial are still be collected and analyzed, however initial data supports claims that the overall lapse time to generate a final (approved) report is significantly less than dictation/transcription. Data is presented that breaks down the actual report creation time vs lapse time and compares this to traditional dictation/transcription and approval process. While the change in behavior process is much more difficult to measure we have captured significant data that correlates training time and various teaching methods to the various adoption rates of structured reporting by physician roles.Conclusions: This pilot study is significant in generating the “Hard Numbers” required in understating the potential productivity gains of a structured reporting deployment. This includes the documentation of overall reporting time improvements along with the issues and obstacles of a large scale structured reporting deployment.
1) To demonstrate the integration of a structured reporting system with our radiology information system. 2) To understand the impact of structured reporting on workflow. 3) To examine the effect of structured reporting on report turn-around time.
Hawkins, A,
Liu, D,
Hands-on Experience of a Trial Use of Structured Reporting for Radiology Reporting in a Large University Hospital Center. Radiological Society of North America 2004 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 28 - December 3, 2004 ,Chicago IL.
http://archive.rsna.org/2004/4409821.html
