Clinical History Provided by Referring Clinicians and Patients for Musculoskeletal MRI

Access to clinical history is essential for the daily workflow of radiologists. Typically, referring clinicians provide patient-specific information for imaging studies because most radiologists have no contact with patients for routine imaging examinations [ 1 Davis D.L. Mulligan M.E. Moszkowicz A. Resnik C.S. Patient-centered care in diagnostic radiology: lessons learned from patient interviews prior to musculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging. Qual Manag Health Care. 2015; 24: 38-44 Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 2 Glazer G.M. Ruiz-Wibbelsmann J.A. The invisible radiologist. Radiology. 2011; 258: 18-22 Crossref PubMed Scopus (99) Google Scholar , 3 Ruiz J.A. Glazer G.M. The state of radiology in 2006: very high spatial resolution but no visibility. Radiology. 2006; 241: 11-16 Crossref PubMed Scopus (25) Google Scholar , 4 Smith W.L. Altmaier E.M. Ross R.R. Johnson B.D. Berberoglu L.S. Patient expectations of radiology in noninteractive encounters. Radiology. 1989; 172: 275-276 Crossref PubMed Scopus (25) Google Scholar ]. Referring clinicians are a heterogeneous group of health care providers, including physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. However, the interpretation of imaging examinations by radiologists with inadequate patient history is not uncommon [ 5 Berquist T.H. Communication: the needs of the patient come first. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2009; 192: 557-559 Crossref PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar ]. The fast-paced tempo of current clinical practice and the impersonal nature of referral patterns compound this problem by limiting routine direct communication between radiologists and referring clinicians. Furthermore, imaging referrals that lack clearly defined clinical questions or contain insufficient patient history may on occasion negatively affect the findings and recommendations of a radiologist’s report [ 1 Davis D.L. Mulligan M.E. Moszkowicz A. Resnik C.S. Patient-centered care in diagnostic radiology: lessons learned from patient interviews prior to musculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging. Qual Manag Health Care. 2015; 24: 38-44 Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 6 Loy C.T. Irwig L. Accuracy of diagnostic tests read with and without clinical information: a systematic review. JAMA. 2004; 292: 1602-1609 Crossref PubMed Scopus (165) Google Scholar ]. Inconclusive reports that do not address sufficiently the clinical question often lead clinicians to request additional tests, adding potentially unnecessary costs to the health care system [ 5 Berquist T.H. Communication: the needs of the patient come first. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2009; 192: 557-559 Crossref PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar , 7 Bazzocchi M. Doctor-patient communication in radiology: a great opportunity for future radiology. Radiol Med. 2012; 117: 339-353 Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar ]. Soliciting additional information directly from patients has been advocated as one possible solution for radiologists to avoid these pitfalls [ 1 Davis D.L. Mulligan M.E. Moszkowicz A. Resnik C.S. Patient-centered care in diagnostic radiology: lessons learned from patient interviews prior to musculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging. Qual Manag Health Care. 2015; 24: 38-44 Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 8 Moreno C.C. Fleming M. McKinnie L. Duszak Jr., R. Expanded payer coverage for ultrasound evaluation of deep vein thrombosis with sonographer-obtained clinical history. J Am Coll Radiol. 2016; 13: 59-63 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 9 Hawkins C.M. Anton C.G. Bankes W.M. et al. Improving the availability of clinical history accompanying radiographic examinations in a large pediatric radiology department. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2014; 202: 790-796 Crossref PubMed Scopus (25) Google Scholar ].