PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - McCarron, Mark
AU  - Wade, Carrie
AU  - Flynn, Peter
AU  - McVerry, Ferghal
TI  - The value of neuroimaging team meetings for patients in a district general hospital
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.18-3-206
DP  - 2018 Jun 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 206--211
VI  - 18
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/18/3/206.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/18/3/206.full
SO  - Clin Med2018 Jun 01; 18
AB  - Neuroradiologists provide quality-assured neuroimaging ­reports. We developed the use of a neuroimaging team meeting to provide second-opinion reporting by neuroradiologists on neuroimaging that had previously been reported by general ­radiologists. Neuroimaging from selected patients was reviewed at the meeting. Where there were discrepancies between an original report from a general radiologist and the report obtained from the meeting involving a neuroradiologist, we classified the discrepancies, recorded the scan modality ­involved and used the data to assess temporal trends in discrepancy rates. Over 4 years, 562 patients (312 women, 250 men, mean age 50.6 [SD 17.3] years) were studied. Agreement occurred for 396 (70.5%) patients. Discrepancies that were not clinically important occurred for 60 (10.7%) patients. Clinically important discrepancies were found for 106 (18.9%) patients: missed lesions for 47 (8.3%) patients and misinterpretations for 59 (10.5%) patients. Cerebrovascular disease was the most common reason for a recommendation of neuroimaging review at a meeting. Scan modality did not influence the frequency of discrepancies. Discrepancy rates decreased with time (chi-squared test for linear trend p=0.015), while the frequency of neuroradiologists’ recommendations for new investigations was stable at one in seven patients. Neuroimaging team meetings can facilitate improvements in neurology diagnoses.