Keywords:
Computer applications, Computer Applications-General
Authors:
J. M. L. Bosmans1, J. J. Weyler2, A. M. de Schepper2, P. M. Parizel2; 1Ghent, Antwerp (Edegem)/BE, 2Antwerp/BE
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2010/C-1051
Purpose
Nowadays, the design of radiology requisition forms in most medical centers includes headings where the clinician can provide clinical information and a clinical question.
The latter seems obvious: radiologists cannot answer questions that have not been asked. As for clinical information, depriving a radiologist of information that could help to interpret the results of an examination in a more coherent and efficient way may hamper the diagnostic process and therefore reduce the quality of patient care. Moreover, several authors have shown that in specific situations, the availability of clinical information improves the outcome of the radiological investigation [1, 2, 3].
Despite all this, radiology requisition forms often do not provide any helpful information and hardly any clinical question. For many years, some non-radiologists have pertained that knowing a patient's medical condition provokes an interpretation bias by the radiologist.
We performed a large scale survey on the views and convictions of clinicians regarding the communication between radilogists and referring physicians. One of the purposes of the survey was to investigate if the aforementioned remarks still represent a widely held belief among clinicians.