While many still use compact discs to let patients view their medical images, one academic medical center is making tremendous strides with online access.
University of Virginia Health recently began allowing consumers to obtain their radiological test results through its electronic health record, after years of using a separate image-viewer portal. In the five months after integration, the provider has seen an almost sevenfold increase in patients accessing their images compared to the five months prior, experts detailed in JACR.
“The integration was the primary driver of the improvement in patient engagement in their images,” Amy Ellenbogen, MD, with UVA’s department of radiology and medical imaging, and colleagues wrote Jan. 23. “Furthermore, this mechanism goes beyond the delivery of images and traditional plain text-only radiology reports, by also distributing interactive multimedia reports directly to patients using their preexisting EHR portal accounts.”
The University of Virginia had been offering a patient-facing imaging portal since November 2013. At the request of leadership, radiology leaders began working toward integrating the two separate portals, hoping to bolster access while requiring fewer accounts and login steps. All told, development and implementation took about three years, total.
Patients started using the new system in September 2019, when UVA also deactivated image-viewer portal accounts and notified users about the EHR switchover. As part of the transition, existing account holders received emails and the health system posted an update on the portal login page. There was no broadcast message to patients about the transition, Ellenbogen and colleagues noted.
In the five months leading up to implementation, 1,925 unique patients accessed their images online, but after the change, that number jumped to 13,202 in the five months that followed. The study had several notable limitations, including that its authors did not survey patients, measure how often individuals clicked on interactive report elements, nor evaluate time or cost savings. But Ellenbogen and co-authors believe the change will have myriad benefits, including meeting requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act.
“With many radiology malpractice lawsuits related to communication errors, supplying patients with direct access to their imaging studies and reports could serve to improve communication and perhaps, decrease unnecessary litigation,” the authors cited as one example.
You can read much more about how they went about the integration in the Journal of the American College of Radiology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.