Reader-friendly myocardial perfusion imaging reports connect patients with their own healthcare
Myocardial perfusion imaging reports are highly technical documents typically composed for specialists. But new evidence suggests patients are more engaged in their own care when results are easier to comprehend.
Kansas City doctors arrived at their preliminary conclusions after working with focus groups and a 123-patient pilot test, sharing their study Aug. 20 in JAMA Network Open.
Individuals wanted to see five broad changes made to their MPI reports: 1) include written information, 2) discuss results with medical professionals, 3) simpler report language with graphics, 4) a side-by-side comparison with normal results, and 5) personalized risk estimates.
These alterations prompted more patients to read their full report, made results easier to read and enhanced knowledge of their future heart risks.
Radiologists from other specialties should also consider incorporating these tweaks, Krishna K. Patel, MD, MSc, with Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, and co-authors noted.
“To our knowledge, this is the first assessment of elements of a patient-centered MPI reporting experience from a patient’s perspective,” the group added Aug. 23. “While our study focused on stress MPI reporting, the key themes identified are potentially applicable to other imaging modalities.”
Patel first launched this project in 2018 after winning the $50,000 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology/Institute for the Advancement of Nuclear Cardiology Research Fellowship Award.
The two-phase study involved five focus groups with 36 outpatients who underwent MPI stress tests and two focus groups with 27 clinicians. Phase two piloted the patient-centered reporting tool with survey feedback from individuals in the pre-and post-implementation period.
Patients wanted a more useful report, noting results were often delivered inconsistently, filled with medical jargon and unclear. Those complaints were incorporated into the new report which provides a potential strategy for imaging departments to develop their own patient-centered documents, Patel et al. noted.
Outside of a laundry list of future research, including testing in additional health systems and patient groups, the authors believe their findings can directly benefit patient care.
“We provided preliminary data that including patient-centered reporting with decision support within an MPI report could improve patient knowledge of future risks, treatment options, and understanding of test results,” the authors wrote. “This can potentially lead to reduced variability in care, improved patient satisfaction, and better care coordination by the imaging cardiologist.”
Read the entire study here.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.