Along with the prevailing application of various imaging modalities in daily clinics, the number of reports for diagnostic radiology has rapidly been increasing. Referring to the results of the previous questionnaire carried out in Gunma University Hospital in 1992, another questionnaire for clinicians working at community hospitals in Gunma prefecture was conducted to ascertain the utilization, archiving, and assessment of the report system. The recovery rate was 87%. Reports of ultrasonography, CT, MRI, angiography, and nuclear medicine were utilized by more than 80% of referring doctors. The reports of plain films and contrast enhanced roentgenography were also highly utilized, particularly in small-sized hospitals. In hospitals that have full-time diagnostic radiologists these reports are also frequently read. Most of the referring clinicians unanimously commented that reports should correspond with actual clinical problems and by easily legible with adequate schemes. The difference from the study of Gunma University Hospital was thart the requests for the contents were surely based on daily clinics and subjective comments, as well as objective imaging findings, made by the diagnostic radiologists. However, the addition of subjective comments differs from hospital to hospital, with respect to the size of the hospital and presence or absence of full-time diagnostic radiologists. For the increased utilization of radiology reports, an exchange of information between radiologists and clinicians seems to be essential. Improvement of reporting system is anticipated with the employment of recently developed database software or word processors which handle imaging files.
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