Abstract
PurposeTo find out how orthopaedic surgeons handle radiological reports and to identify ways to improve musculoskeletal radiology service and interdisciplinary communication. MethodAn anonymised 14-question online survey was distributed among 27 orthopaedic departments in German-speaking parts of Europe. It was available to trainees and consultants between 22/10/2020 and 05/06/2021. The questionnaire collected information regarding the participants’ habits of consulting radiology reports depending on the imaging modality, reasons for not reading reports and asked for improvement recommendations for the radiology service. Results81 orthopaedists participated. 20% would never consult a plain radiograph report. In contrast, only 4% would never consult a CT report and no one claimed to never consult an MRI report. 43%, 67% and 86% would routinely consult radiology reports of radiographs, CT and MRI studies, respectively. Long time to report availability (24%), a general lack of time (19%) and too long texts (17%) were the most popular reasons for not consulting the reports. 62% of participants voted to sometimes disagree with the reports and in cases of opinion discrepancy 51% would always or often contact the radiologist. 64% preferred to be informed directly via phone about relevant unexpected findings. Most popular report improvement recommendations were more rapid report availability (24%), inclusion of significant images (19%) and inclusion of more angle and distance measurements (16%). In the free text column, a desire for direct interdisciplinary discussion of equivocal cases was often stated (30%). ConclusionsConcluding, this survey showed that orthopaedic surgeons routinely consult radiology reports. The participants expressed a desire for increased, direct interdisciplinary communication to solve equivocal cases and improve patient care.
Highlights
Modern medicine is no longer conceivable without radiology
Radiology re ports often will not be consulted, as they have no implications for daily practice. This brief 14-question survey revealed that the majority of ortho paedic surgeons routinely consult radiology reports for most imaging studies
This contradicts the conception that this referrer group is only interested in the imaging data and not the radiologist’s opinion
Summary
Modern medicine is no longer conceivable without radiology. Every clinical subspecialty uses imaging methods to facilitate diagnostics and improve patient management. The increased exposure to imaging in the daily clinical routine has led to improved image interpretation skills of referring physicians. Orthopaedic surgery is one of the subspecialties where imaging is ubiquitous. It has become common practice of orthopaedists to assess radiology images of their patients. The development of expertise in image interpretation of this specialised referrer group have led to the common perception among radiologists, that orthopaedic surgeons are only interested in the acquired, original imaging data. It is conceived that the written radiology report is not or only rarely con sulted by these experts
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