Closing the Loop with Intelligent Communications in Radiology
It’s important for a radiology practice to have a process in place that helps identify and track patients whose imaging results reveal a potential issue or condition that should be re-evaluated in the future. While a patient’s immediate condition is reported to their ordering physician, the recommendation from the radiologist for a follow-up often gets overlooked or is not communicated properly. Physicians may be flooded with notices and patients may not be aware of findings in their report. In a day and age where personalized digital communications are prevalent in our everyday lives, it is critical to crack the code on how to best communicate radiology results with patients and providers to reduce the risk of missed diagnoses or misdiagnoses.
In a recent study, doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center analyzed hundreds of CT radiology reports that suggested additional imaging for incidental findings over a six-month period, and they found that radiology recommendations were followed in only 39.1 % of cases. To improve these issues, the report suggests that radiologists should standardize communication of findings that require additional analysis.
Existing systems mainly rely on analog methods of communication. Radiology Alliance (which is now part of Mednax) has partnered with Nuance to offer a solution that tags radiology reports that warrant a follow-up. Whenever a radiologist dictates their report into the reporting program and mentions that a follow-up is recommended, Follow-Up Manager enters the report into a database where a member of the front office staff can contact each provider or patient via phone or snail mail to make sure that they get the necessary additional information. This approach, however, is only a partial solution because it relies on human follow-up.
Within Health offers an integrated digital platform to help track radiology findings and launch digital communication campaigns that maximize follow-up awareness and adherence. The platform uses artificial intelligence to learn communication preferences, and optimally communicate with patients and providers across multiple channels including email, text messages, eFax, web push notifications and Whatsapp. Moreover, the platform gives radiology practices the ability to design multiple communications campaigns to patient and provider cohorts and set up A/B tests across several variables including message content, cadence, sequence, and channels to improve campaign performance.
