Use of a Web-Based Calculator and a Structured Report Generator to Improve Efficiency, Accuracy, and Consistency of Radiology Reporting

While medical calculators are common, they are infrequently used in the day-to-day radiology practice. We hypothesized that a calculator coupled with a structured report generator would decrease the time required to interpret and dictate a study in addition to decreasing the number of errors in interpretation. A web-based application was created to help radiologists calculate leg-length discrepancies. A time motion study was performed to evaluate if the calculator helped to decrease the time for interpretation and dictation of leg-length radiographs. Two radiologists each evaluated two sets of ten radiographs, one set using the traditional pen and paper method and the other set using the calculator. The time to interpret each study and the time to dictate each study were recorded. In addition, each calculation was checked for errors. When comparing the two methods of calculating the leg lengths, the manual method was significantly slower than the calculator for all time points measured: the mean time to calculate the leg-length discrepancy (131.8 vs. 59.7 s; p < 0.001), the mean time to dictate the report (31.8 vs. 11 s; p < 0.001), and the mean total time (163.7 vs. 70.7 s; p < 0.001). Reports created by the calculator were more accurate than reports created via the manual method (100 vs. 90%), although this result was not significant (p = 0.16). A calculator with a structured report generator significantly improved the time required to calculate and dictate leg-length discrepancy studies.