By Cynthia E. Keen, AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 11, 2011
Thursday, December 1 | 11:30 a.m.-11:40 a.m. | SSQ07-07 | Room S402AB Radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital are using data mining software to determine whether physicians who order diagnostic imaging tests for their patients order additional imaging exams when they are recommended by radiologists.
This scientific paper presentation will report on one such evaluation in which the radiology department wanted to determine the extent to which recommendations were followed after abdominal MRI findings were reported.
In this study, 1,000 radiology reports of CT, MRI, and ultrasound abdominal studies produced in 2008 were selected from the hospital's patient database using a clinical data mining and natural language processing tool (Leximer, Nuance Communications). This selection represented 500 consecutive reports with recommendations made for additional studies and 500 consecutive reports without recommendations.
The average compliance rate to order recommended studies was highest for patients who had an abdominal MRI exam, at 80%, followed by ultrasound at 79% and CT at 76%.
Dr. Supriya Gupta, a research fellow in imaging informatics, will discuss the need for establishing standardized guidelines and validating recommendations for additional imaging.
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