Dr. Eliot Siegel, Vice Chair of Radiology at the Univ. of Maryland gave this talk during the RSNA 2023 annual meeting in Chicago. He highlights the follow-up problem from a radiology perspective and reviews the general issues affecting the lack of follow-up to radiology recommendations.
He also discusses the manual efforts undertaken at the Univ. of Maryland to improve their patient's adherence to radiology follow-up recommendations. Their manual-intensive effort highlighted the need for the following capabilities:
1. The ability to notify referring physicians.
2. The ability to alert referring physicians about the findings.
3. The ability to document the need for follow-up in the EHR
4. The need for automation that tracks whether a follow-up has been performed, especially for patients outside of the health system.
He acknowledges that radiologists don't have the time to track all follow-up recommendations and need an automated tool to solve this problem.
He also poses the existential question, “What is the responsibility of the radiologist to the patient and the referring physician to confirm the recommendation was adhered to?”