New Video Series Helps Patients Understand Their Radiology Reports

RadiologyInfo.org provides important public-facing imaging content

BY LYNN ANTONOPOULOS April 04, 2024

Pahade

Escalon

A new video series available on RadiologyInfo.org is designed to help patients bridge the information gap and reduce anxiety during the critical time between when an imaging report first appears in the patient portal and when they have a chance to discuss their findings with the ordering provider.

Introduced in 2003 and co-produced by RSNA and the American College of Radiology (ACR), RadiologyInfo.org is home to patient-friendly information featuring more than 270 imaging procedures, exams and disease topics. The creators of the new series sought to decipher terminology typically used in common radiology reports. They hope radiologists will take an active role in sharing the new resource with patients.

“Radiologists are still dictating reports at a level suitable for an independent health care practitioner—not at a more patient-appropriate eighth-grade level,” said Jay K. Pahade, MD. “Our goal is to explore different ways to empower patients with information that could help them better understand what they are reading.”

Dr. Pahade is an abdominal radiologist with Yale Radiology and Biomedical Imaging in New Haven, CT, where he also serves as vice chair of quality and safety and medical director for radiology quality and safety for Yale New Haven Health System. He is co-chair of the joint RSNA-ACR Public Information Website Committee comprised of 16 multi-institutional radiology professionals responsible for overseeing content development and review for RadiologyInfo.org. Approximately 85 medical advisors assist each year with writing and content review.

“Radiologists are still dictating reports at a level suitable for an independent health care practitioner—not at a more patient-appropriate eighth-grade level. Our goal is to explore different ways to empower patients with information that could help them better understand what they are reading.”

— JAY K. PAHADE, MD

A man and woman sit together looking over paperwork on the table in front of them. There is a laptop computer and a bowl of citrus fruits.

According to Dr. Pahade, six videos are slated for initial development with two—one on abdominal/pelvic CT and one on chest X-ray—already complete. The topics selected were based on user behaviors on RadiologyInfo.org, feedback from the Joint RSNA-ACR Committee, and input from the Patient and Family Advisory Committee.

“We look to this group of patient advocates to help us design and focus the work,” Dr. Pahade said. “They offered feedback to help us determine which topics would be most helpful for patients.”

Choosing Appropriate Topics, Language

Dr. Pahade developed and recorded the first video entitled, “Understanding Your Abdominal and Pelvic CT Report,” and said that a key challenge in the project was figuring out the appropriate topics and language for coverage.

“We’re not actually analyzing and digesting a patient’s report,” he said. “We had to think generically about the typical terms radiologists use when reporting this type of exam to determine what might be confusing to the patient, then explain what those terms typically mean in the context of the report.”

“Our goal was to reassure patients about typical findings, empower them to ask more questions and help them gain a better understanding of potential next steps and how the imaging findings may or may not be important to their health,” said Joanna G. Escalon, MD, a cardiothoracic radiologist at NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

Dr. Escalon is a member of the Joint RSNA-ACR Committee and developed the second video in the series, “Understanding Your Chest X-Ray Report.” She said her aim was to create a short but informative video.

“I tried my best to imagine myself in the shoes of the patient and asked myself what parts of a chest X-ray report may cause the most stress or be particularly confusing,” Dr. Escalon said.

Additional videos in development include, "Understanding Your Cardiac CT for Calcium Scoring," “Understanding Your Brain MRI Report,” “Understanding Your Mammography Report,” and “Understanding Your PET/CT Report.”

Radiologists Can Take the Lead in Patient Education

As the RadiologyInfo.org library continues to expand, focus remains on ensuring that patients are aware of and take advantage of the resource. Dr. Pahade noted that most people find the site through an internet search.

“Our biggest hurdle is to market the content and get it to where it shows up on search engines at the top of the search query as a trusted, vetted source,” he said.

Radiologists can increase visibility and take the lead in patient education by referring patients to the site. “A large proportion of patients will be cared for by a radiologist and never meet them,” Dr. Escalon said. “While the referring physician plays a key role in discussing the results with the patients, radiologists must contribute to the conversation as we are often best suited to provide clarity on the imaging findings and report. As experts in imaging, we can help the patient be more informed about their care and health.”

“We encourage radiologists to inform both referring providers and patients about the website,” Dr. Escalon continued. “We also try to promote this resource through the X account (@RadiologyInfo_) and through Instagram (@radinfo4patients).”

In his own institution, Dr. Pahade worked closely with his informatics team to include a RadiologyInfo.org link on understanding your radiology report in the patient portal above the imaging report. He said it is clicked between 5,000 and 9,000 times each month. Since going live with the link in October 2021, it has been clicked nearly 51,000 times.

“We recognize that right now we are providing a very basic overview of what the radiology report typically looks like, and we need to further expand on this to provide more patient specific information. The videos will help as we emphasize terminology that is often seen in the report for that exam type,” Dr. Pahade said. “It is a good middle ground until we find a more reliable and scalable solution for radiologists to translate the individual report for a patient. With the growth of large language AI models, I suspect this will become much easier soon.”