Dear Healthcare Informatics Insider,
Healthcare IT offers the ability to eliminate boundaries relating to a person's medical records, if only bureaucratic barriers and communications challenges don't get in the way. Accordingly, this issue of the Healthcare Informatics Digital Community Insider is placing a major emphasis on radiology reports.
Radiology departments became much more efficient when they began implementing RIS software, and each succeeding generation of software adds another layer of impressive features and functionality. The European Congress of Radiology (ECR) included a presentation about how a radiology IT department staff member or group can make RIS management much easier. Staff writer Erik L. Ridley was among the attendees and reported what he learned.
After several false starts, structured reporting is becoming viable, and structured report template functionality is now being offered in a number of commercial products. A team of Belgian radiologists who've done research on this subject provide some interesting insights about what radiologists want. Click here to read more.
Another study, this one from Singapore, has been added to a growing collection of medical literature showing that clinicians prefer receiving structured reports. Don't miss this ECR presentation!
But it doesn't matter what technology a radiologist utilizes to produce a report if language and culture barriers affect its content. A unique proof of concept project undertaken by Finnish and Estonian radiologists is another ECR presentation that we think you will find of great interest.
