Report template from the German Society of Urology and the German Radiological Society for standardized, structured reporting of native computed tomography scans in the diagnosis of urinary stones

Abstract

Standardized structured radiological reporting (SSRB) has been promoted in recent years. The aims of SSRB include that reports be complete, clear, understandable, and stringent. Repetitions or superfluous content should be avoided. In addition, there are advantages in the presentation of chronological sequences, tracking and correlations with structured findings from other disciplines and also the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods. The development of the presented template for SSRB of native computed tomography for urinary stones followed the "process for the creation of quality-assured and consensus-based report templates as well as subsequent continuous quality control and updating" proposed by the German Radiological Society (DRG). This includes several stages of drafts, consensus meetings and further developments. The final version was published on the DRG website ( www.befundung.drg.de ). The template will be checked annually by the steering group and adjusted as necessary. The template contains 6organ domains (e.g., right kidney) for which entries can be made for atotal of 21different items, mostly with selection windows. If "no evidence of stones" is selected for an organ in the first query, the query automatically jumps to the next organ, so that the processing can be processed very quickly despite the potentially high total number of individual queries for all organs. The German, European, and North American Radiological Societies perceive the establishment of astandardized structured diagnosis of tomographic imaging methods not only in oncological radiology as one of the current central tasks. With the present template for the description of computed tomographic findings for urinary stone diagnostics, we are presenting the first version of aurological template. Further templates for urological diseases are to follow.