Exploring the value of using patient-oriented MRI reports in clinical practice — a pilot study

Individuals’ Access to Medical Imaging Results via Patient Portals

“…Standard radiology reports are written for clinicians who understand medical language and abbreviations� 12,13 The terms used by radiologists may not be well understood by individuals reading their radiology reports� 12,13 Unlike laboratory results (e�g�, blood tests), radiology reports do not have normal ranges for individuals to reference� Individual access to results on portals requires consideration of their health literacy� 12 The use of lay language when results are intended to be shared on a patient portal can help increase an individual's understanding of their health information� 6,8,43,45 It has been suggested that separate, user-friendly summaries can be shared on portals� 43 It may also be helpful to direct users to reliable web sources, such as consumer health vocabularies for information through hyperlinks on reports� 13,39 Other recommendations to help mitigate confusion include providing results in the appropriate context (e�g�, spine disc desiccation that is expected for the individual's age) 46 and working with local patient groups to develop simplified terminology for reports� 47 Structured reporting templates that are disease-specific have been developed by some groups. 40 However, it is recognized that standardizing and simplifying radiology reports requires considerable effort, especially when considering different cultures and languages� 13 A patient-centred radiology report (PACERR) prototype for prostate MRI was developed by relevant experts in health, medical imaging, engineering, and research� 48 The development of the template was informed by interviews with experts and individuals undergoing prostate MRI� 48 Another tool developed to facilitate patient-friendly reporting in radiology is Patient-Oriented Radiology Reporter (PORTER)� 49 PORTER is a lay-language glossary of frequently used terms applied to MRI exams of the knee� 49 AI and natural language processing could potentially be used to improve an individual's understanding of electronic health record content in the future� 13 For example, dedicated text-processing tools can help simplify terms� 13…”

Editorial Comment

“…Interestingly, urology has paved the way in this field with clinical trials exploring the usefulness of patientcentered pathology and radiology reports. 1,2 The reports appear to benefit patients, but there are still no examples of fully automated creation of these reports from traditional ones. This is a major hurdle to widespread adoption.…”