EDITORIAL

Andrew du Toit
MB ChB, FF Rad (D) SA

Levin and Partners
Constantiaberg MediClinic

Cape Town

Relevant radiological
•reporting

Dactors and patients are aware of advances in imaging trends. Radiologists
like to show beautiful images at clinical meetings, and patients research via the
internet or hear about new modalities through friends who have experienced
modern imaging. These new machines sometimes make pathology startlingly
obvious, but does the interpretation that we convey in the report really help the
clinician?

Radiologists endeavour to keep pace with imaging advances, and invest in
expensive hardware that requires ongoing investment in expensive software
upgrades. They modernise the waiting room and the dictation system, and design
new packets for the new MR! machine. Yet the most important part of our final
product, the report, never really receives any attention. Many radiologists adopt
and keep a style of reporting from mentors who impressed them during registrar
training.

In private practice radiologists are pressurised to issue reports within minutes
of the examination being completed. In many cases this is possible, but how many
times have you signed off a report that you wish could have received more atten-
tion or been worded differently? It's out there on paper now, and you probably
would have preferred to consult the referring clinician, think about the problem
and give a more satisfactory report the next day.

Our final product on paper needs the same attention that we give to the image.
Essentially this means better knowledge of pathology, an understanding of what
the clinician needs to know and a few lessons in sentence construction so that the
report does not read like a grade 3 essay.This applies to the bread and butter stuff
as well, such as the routine daily mobile chest X-ray done in the ICU. Meaningful
liaison with the critical care staff, preferably by joining ward rounds, will ensure a
report that has much more relevance rather than once again describing a shadow
without knowing about the patient's fluid status.

For this edition of the Journall decided that the theme should be relevant radi-
ological reporting and asked my colleagues to come up with something in their
field of interest. We have such varied demands that it is difficult to keep pace with
the advances in every field of medicine. Some studies we feel uncomfortable with,
but one can go a long wayan basic radiology skills if one is aware of what is impor-
tant in the conclusion.

Andrew du Toit
Editor

3 SAJOURNALOF RADIOLOGY. February2003