The Society of Interventional Radiology launched its Virtex registry in 2020 with an eye on showcasing the value of the profession to U.S. healthcare.
The registry is best fed on data pulled from the society’s own standardized reporting templates. Yet today only one-third of interventional rads are using the “SIR SR” templates.
This is according to a survey conducted by interventional rads and described in SIR’s own Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology [1].
Lead author Paul Bennett Lewis, MD, MBA, of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues received completed surveys from 451 interventional radiology (IR) physicians representing 92 academic IR departments and 151 private IR practices.
Three-quarters of respondents indicated they regularly use structured reporting templates—but the structured templates favored by most of these IRs, 67%, were developed outside of SIR.
Asked about factors discouraging their use of SIR SR templates, some 31% said they were unaware of the templates’ existence.
Other barriers to broad adoption included the perception that SIR SR compromises autonomy, has overly long templates and/or contains irrelevant data elements, fails to support dictation or EMR of choice and lacks IT or administrative buy-in.
Drive to ‘keep IR at the leading edge of medicine’
Unsurprisingly, 40% of radiologists using no structured reporting said such templates don’t allow for enough narrative or free text.
About that same percentage of SIR SR users said the same.
The authors remark that this concern could likely be ameliorated by educating interventional radiologists that SIR SR accommodates customization, including reordering of modules and addition of narrative text.
“Some feedback from this survey is based on the older versions of the SIR SR,” they point out. “Many of these critiques have been addressed in the most current version of the SIR SR” (version 3.1).
A particular strength of SIR SR is its adoption across a broad range of dictation and EMR systems, the authors report.
Responding to comments offered by survey respondents, Lewis and co-authors take up the perception that SIR SR templates are designed to “serve individual research interests.”
“That is not the goal of SIR SR templates or Virtex,” Lewis et al. write. “The intent of the SIR SR templates is to establish standardized language for IR and compile a national level sample size of pre-, intra- and post-procedure data to help improve quality of care/outcomes, understand gaps in care that can be answered via research, drive reimbursement decisions and keep IR at the leading edge of medicine.”
Competitive edge requires real-world data
Given its young age, the Virtex registry demands a focus on standardized language and structured reporting, the authors suggest by way of explaining the thrust of the survey.
“The registry is gaining attention and has now been launched at select sites across the country with others enrolled,” Lewis and co-authors comment. “Sustaining its success and demonstrating its value to the society and individual practices relies on standardized language and granularity.”
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“The SIR SR with standardized language is the first step in strengthening the IR position, demonstrating value and allowing IR to compete using real-world data. This real-world data will ultimately enhance our practice on all levels and better serve our patients.”
Mary joined TriMed Media in 2003. She was the founding editor and editorial director of Health Imaging, Cardiovascular Business, Molecular Imaging Insight and CMIO, now known as Clinical Innovation + Technology. Prior to TriMed, Mary was the editorial director of HealthTech Publishing Company, where she had worked since 1991. While there, she oversaw four magazines and related online media, and piloted the launch of two magazines and websites. Mary holds a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. She lives in East Greenwich, R.I., and when not working, she is usually running around after her family, taking photos or cooking.