Patients may benefit more from speaking directly with a radiologist rather than a referring physician, a new study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School has shown.

In the study, 1,976 radiology patients were surveyed about their perceptions of radiology and radiology results. The researchers discovered that many patients hoped for more face time with a radiologist to gain a better understanding of their results.

The survey showed that 84 percent of patients were interested in meeting with a radiologist and 20 percent were willing to pay $40 or more to see one. They were also three times more comfortable with a radiologist analyzing an image than a non-radiologist.

Ten percent of patients incorrectly said that ultrasound uses radiation and 45 percent believe that MR uses radiation. For tests that use radiation, 87 percent were correct regarding radiography, 63 percent with CT, and 62 percent with nuclear medicine imaging.

The survey also showed that the patients’ knowledge improved after they received educational literature.

According to Dr. Ella Kazerooni, co-author of the study and a professor of radiology at U-M, there can be many steps between a radiologist receiving and interpreting results and a patient receiving the results from a doctor.

“With their referring physicians acting as translators of results, much like the game of telephone we played as kids, as the message passes from one person to the next. Important, and sometimes critically important, information gets lost,” Kazerooni told HCB News.

As a result, it could leave many patients without a true grasp of what radiologists do and how they impact decisions going forward.

Some hospitals and health care facilities are working to improve the gap between patient care and communication. However, according to the announcement, some radiologists have concerns that referring physicians could be offended when a radiologist gives their own opinion during the patient’s visit with the doctor.

“As a discipline, we should strive to be available and open to speaking with patients directly,” Kazerooni said. “Radiologists are often in the best position to understand the significance of the test results, how to integrate radiologist test results with prior imaging or other tests, and the need for appropriate imaging in the future.”

“While the "internal" face of radiology is often a computer screen where diagnostic radiologists spend many hours interpreting images, interacting with complex data sets and creating our reports, the faces of both radiologists and patients are entirely human,” she said. “Those interactions are fundamental to health, the psychology of health care and better patient outcomes.”

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