Multimedia and Hyperlinks in Radiology Reports

Hyperlinked multimedia-enhanced radiology reports improve concordance of target lesion selection and measurements used to calculate therapeutic response, according to a study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, performed a retrospective study determine the clinical value of hyperlinked tumor measurements in multimedia-enhanced radiology reports in the PACS and the inclusion of a radiologist assistant in the process of assessing tumor burden.

The researchers assessed 489 target lesions in 232 CT examinations of 71 patients with metastatic genitourinary cancer enrolled in two therapeutic trials. Target lesion selection and measurement concordance between oncology records (used to calculate therapeutic response) and two types of radiology reports in the PACS were analyzed, as well as multimedia-enhanced radiology reports and text-only reports.

The results showed that the concordance on target lesion selection was greater for multimedia-enhanced radiology reports, at 78%, than the text-only reports, which were at 52%. The researchers also noted improved overall measurement concordance with the multimedia-enhanced radiology reports, at 68%, compared with the text-only reports, at 38%.

“Compared with text-only reports, hyperlinked multimedia-enhanced radiology reports improved concordance of target lesion selection and measurement with the measurements used to calculate therapeutic response,” the researchers concluded.