According to new survey data shared in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, experts along with the Mayo Clinic and Loma Linda University Medical Center recently conducted a study to investigate patients' preferences for radiology reports. Their analysis involved the feedback of nearly 500 individuals who received treatment at LLUMC between 2019 and 2021.
Of the total 490 responses, 135 were evaluating CT and MRI reports. Patients treated at Loma Linda were asked to complete a two-question survey embedded in the patient portal following their advanced imaging procedures.
The study compared reporting features between highly rated and poorly rated reports to identify differences and potential areas for improvement.
The study's findings revealed that the majority of patients (77%) gave high ratings to their CT or MRI radiology reports. In terms of the radiology reports, it was interesting to note that lower Flesch Reading Ease scores in the findings section (indicating more challenging readability) were associated with higher patient ratings.
A higher percentage of highly rated reports were presented in a structured format compared to those that were not (93.5% vs. 6.5%). Additionally, the highly rated reports had lower reading ease scores compared to poorly rated reports (19.6% vs. 28.9%).
Nevertheless, it's important to note that no significant differences were observed in terms of the number of words or words per sentence in the findings section of the reports.
Despite low reading ease, patients showed a preference for highly rated reports that were structured and more challenging to read in the findings section of reports.
Source: Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology
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