PITTSBURGH -- Most radiologists have strongly positive attitudes toward interactive multimedia reporting, according to study results shared at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) annual meeting.
Annabelle Gaskin, a graduate student from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, presented her team’s survey study showing that interactive multimedia reporting can save time during report creation and downstream report review.
Annabelle Gaskin presents her team's survey study at SIIM 2026 showing that most radiologists reported positive attitudes toward interactive multimedia reporting.
“The interactive multimedia reporting was associated with perceptions of reduced errors, greater clarity, and greater value in reports,” Gaskin said.
Interactive multimedia reporting is an approach that allows for automatic sharing of image-related data with a health system’s PACS. This leads to rich-formatted interactive reports that contain hyperlinks connected back to annotated images with the PACS. Key images, measurements, image and series numbers, and comparison exams can be inserted into the report.
Gaskin said that while this technology is not widely available, it has been in use at the University of Virginia for over 10 years.
She and colleagues gathered data on radiologists’ thoughts about using this kind of reporting, including whether it slows them down and if they find it to be a worthwhile tool. Survey questions explored how radiologists use features from the reporting system, preferences, and opinions about report quality for patients, providers, and other radiologists.
The team included data from 52 completed surveys, of which 45% were residents, 47% were faculty, and 8% were fellows. The survey respondents represented the following six imaging subspecialties: neuroradiology (38%), musculoskeletal (21%), cardiothoracic (17%), abdominal (17%), interventional neuroradiology (4%), and pediatric radiology (3%).
Gaskin shared the following findings:
86% of radiologists reported inserting hyperlinks to important findings in most MRI, CT, and PET reports.
Radiologists reported an average of nine seconds saved for each hyperlink placed due to automated data insertion. And 88% of radiologists associated this automation with fewer reporting errors.
Radiologists said they commonly link annotation types with arrows (96%), bidimensional measurements (85%), and linear measurements (79%).
When reviewing reports by other radiologists, 90% of survey respondents strongly preferred reviewing previous reports with hyperlinks due to greater clarity (98%) and time savings (96%).
About seven out of 10 radiologists reported “almost always” using automatic insertion of comparison exams into reports, with a perceived average savings of 12 seconds per report.
Among other findings, Gaskin reported that 85% of radiologists reported adding key images to reports, with 98% saying they believed these images help with consumer understanding.
Gaskin said interactive multimedia reporting can elevate radiology reporting with rich content, with hyperlinks adding clarity and time-saving benefits for radiologists and consumers.
Check out AuntMinnie’s full coverage of SIIM 2026 here.
