Cardiology is an inherently data-dependent and data-driven practice. Patient medical history records, images, test results, and more go into every diagnosis and treatment decision. However, most organizations don’t take advantage of structured reporting, most cardiovascular information systems (CVIS) cannot effectively mine the wealth of data from a facility’s cardiology department. There is no debate on how crucial structured reporting is. It is considered the first step to improving patient care and enhanced data accuracy—important points raised by a coalition of 14 professional societies led by the American College of Cardiology and by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.(1) It’s estimated that only 10% of United States cardiac Cath labs use structured reporting to improve efficiency and bolster patient outcomes.(1)

Dr. Serge Makowski, CEO and Co-founder of leading healthcare software development firm MediReport, says, “The goal of structured reporting is to make sure there is consistency in the documentation reporting of every cardiac procedure, regardless of the physician’s training, background, or style of work and that 100% of procedural data is recorded abiding by the latest clinical guidelines. The system intelligently guides the clinician on the required and important procedural data and generates near real-time reports which are automatically incorporated into the facility’s existing electronic health record. Subsequently, this can be accessed by any healthcare provider, which informs evidence-based treatment decisions, improves billing, and betters the patient care experience.”

Structured reporting systems fully incorporate data, workflow, analytics, inventory management, billing, and process improvement in one central documentation system.(1) The same data may be repurposed repeatedly for clinical research or registry participation, without the need for any manual data re-entry.
Basic Features of Structured Reporting
A growing number of healthcare organizations are exploring structured reporting. But not all structured reporting systems are created equal. Clinicians should look for several key features to ensure maximum efficiency, such as:

The centralization of all information (dosimetry, pressures, measurements, dynamic drawing, key PACS images…) from the cardiac procedure. This means the system must seamlessly interface and operate with the facility’s software packages (EMR, modalities, HIS...).

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