Rationale and Objectives
To assess the effects of a change from free text reporting to structured reporting
on resident reports, the proofreading workload and report turnaround times in the
neuroradiology daily routine.
Materials and Methods
Our neuroradiology section introduced structured reporting templates in July 2019.
Reports dictated by residents during dayshifts from January 2019 to March 2020 were
retrospectively assessed using quantitative parameters from report comparison. Through
automatic analysis of text-string differences between report states (i.e. draft, preliminary
and final report), Jaccard similarities and edit distances of reports following read-out
sessions as well as after report sign-off were calculated. Furthermore, turnaround
times until preliminary and final report availability to clinicians were investigated.
Parameters were visualized as trending line graphs and statistically compared between
reporting standards.
Results
Three thousand five hundred thirty-eight reports were included into analysis. Mean
Jaccard similarity of resident drafts and staff-reviewed final reports increased from
0.53 ± 0.37 to 0.79 ± 0.22 after the introduction of structured reporting (p < .001). Both mean overall edits on draft reports by residents following read-out
sessions (0.30 ± 0.45 vs. 0.09 ± 0.29; p < .001) and by staff radiologists during report sign-off (0.17 ± 0.28 vs. 0.12 ±
0.23, p < .001) decreased. With structured reporting, mean turnaround time until preliminary
report availability to clinicians decreased by 20.7 minutes (246.9 ± 207.0 vs. 226.2
± 224.9; p < .001). Similarly, final reports were available 35.0 minutes faster on average (558.05
± 15.1 vs. 523.0 ± 497.3; p = .002).
Conclusion
Structured reporting is beneficial in the neuroradiology daily routine, as resident
drafts require fewer edits in the report review process. This reduction in proofreading
workload is likely responsible for lower report turnaround times.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 09, 2022
Accepted:
May 17,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 17,
2022
Received:
March 1,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
