Impact of an Information Technology–Enabled Initiative on the Quality of Prostate Multiparametric MRI Reports

Rationale and Objectives: Assess the impact of implementing a structured report template and a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) tool on the quality of prostate multiparametric MRI (mp-MRI) reports. Materials and Methods: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for this HIPAA-compliant study performed at an academic medical center. The study cohort included all prostate mp-MRI reports (n=385) finalized 6 months before and after implementation of a structured report template and a CAD tool (collectively the IT tools) integrated into the PACS workstation. Primary outcome measure was quality of prostate mp-MRI reports. An expert panel of our institution’s subspecialty trained abdominal radiologists defined prostate mp-MRI report quality as optimal, satisfactory or unsatisfactory based on documentation of 9 variables. Reports were reviewed to extract the predefined quality variables and determine whether the IT tools were used to create each report. Chi-square and Student’s t-tests were used to compare report quality before and after implementation of IT tools. Results: The overall proportion of optimal or satisfactory reports increased from 29.8% (47/158) to 53.3% (121/227) (p