Impact of Follow-Up Imaging Recommendation Specificity on Adherence

• Main Authors: Dalal, S. (Author), Gunn, M.L (Author), Hall, C.S (Author), Hombal, V. (Author), Mabotuwana, T. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: NLM (Medline) 2022
• Subjects: follow-up compliance; quality improvement; radiology follow-up recommendations; radiology information system
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Radiology reports often contain follow-up imaging recommendations, but failure to comply with them in a timely manner can lead to delayed treatment, poor patient outcomes, complications, and legal liability. Using a dataset containing 2,972,164 exams for over 7 years, in this study we explored the association between recommendation specificity on follow-up rates. Our results suggest that explicitly mentioning the follow-up interval as part of a follow-up imaging recommendation has a significant impact on adherence making these recommendations 3 times more likely (95% CI: 2.95 - 3.05) to be followed-up, while explicit mentioning of the follow-up modality did not have a significant impact. Our findings can be incorporated into routine dictation macros so that the follow-up duration is explicitly mentioned whenever clinically applicable, and/or used as the basis for a quality improvement project focussed on improving adherence to follow-up imaging recommendations.