Rationale and Objectives
The American College of Radiology reporting guidelines state that “comparison with relevant examinations and reports should be part of the radiologic consultation and report when appropriate and available.“
Materials and Methods
We evaluated the use of open-source Windows scripting software for the automated retrieval of the date and time of prior studies.
Results and Conclusion
The date and time of the comparative study are transferred automatically to the present report in a structured voice recognition dictation system with a “regular expression substitution pattern” construct.
Introduction
Reporting of comparison studies is an important step in the transcription of imaging reports by radiologists. The American College of Radiology reporting guidelines state that “comparison with relevant examinations and reports should be part of the radiologic consultation and report when appropriate and available” . However, entering the date of the prior report with voice recognition or manual typing can be tedious, time-consuming, and subject to human error. We evaluated the use of open-source scripting software, AutoHotkey (AHK; Microsoft Windows, Redmond, WA, USA), for the automated transfer of the date and time of comparison studies.
Before October 2011, radiologists at a county hospital in Silicon Valley in Northern California viewing study images on a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) workstation (Agfa IMPAX, Mortsel, Belgium) were required to manually type or dictate the dates and times of previous comparison studies into reports via a structured voice recognition dictation system (Agfa TalkStation). To improve efficiency and reduce errors, we designed software for the automated transfer of the date and time of prior studies.
Methods (Program Design)
Microsoft Windows (Redmond, WA) based open-source scripting software AutoHotkey was used to create a scripting program , which could then be compiled on any individual workstation in the department, as the script is accessible via a shared network drive. AutoHotkey was chosen as it is open-source and free, as well as customizable.
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Results (Program Evaluation)
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Discussion
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Conclusion
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References
1. 2010.American College of RadiologyReston, VA
2. AutoHotkey : Free mouse and keyboard macro program with hotkeys and autotext. Available at: http://www.autohotkey.com/
3. Balkman J., Siegel A.: “Autopage” and the use of computer scripts to automate microtasks.2012.SIIMLebanon, NH, USA
4. Iv M., Patel M.R., Santos A., et. al.: Informatics in radiology: use of a macro scripting editor to facilitate transfer of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry reports into an existing departmental voice recognition dictation system. Radiographics 2011; 31: pp. 1181-1189.
5. Laks M.: Open source software for enhancing the working radiologist’s workstation. Am J Roentgenol 2012; 198: pp. 198. Supplement