Important imaging finding e-mail alert system: experience after 3 years of implementation

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Radiology
• Healthcare Communication

Background:

• Effective communication of imaging findings is crucial for patient care.
• Nonurgent but important findings require a reliable notification system.
• Email technology offers a potential solution for disseminating such information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of an important finding alert (IFA) system.
• To evaluate the use of email technology for alerting physicians to nonurgent imaging findings.
• To determine the impact of the IFA system on clinical communication.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of 1,540,254 radiology reports from 2005-2007.
• Analysis of 56,691 reports containing IFA statements.
• Review of 1000 randomly selected reports to identify common findings and modalities.

Main Results:

• 3.7% of reports contained an IFA statement.
• 93.3% of IFAs generated email messages, with 74.6% viewed by physicians.
• Definitive and indeterminate abnormalities were the most common findings; CT scans and thoracic/abdominal radiology were primary sources.

Conclusions:

• The important finding alert (IFA) system demonstrates potential utility.
• Email technology can be effectively employed for communicating nonurgent, significant imaging results.
• The system shows promise for improving the dissemination of critical, albeit nonurgent, diagnostic information.