Visage Imaging now allows radiologists to create and distribute video reports from the Visage 7 platform, representing an interesting milestone for radiology patient engagement and multimedia reporting.
About Visage Videos – The latest Visage 7 version (7.1.17) allows radiologists to quickly create and edit one minute multimedia video reports (video, audio, 2D/3D manipulations) at their workstations (same setup & dictation system), and use these videos to explain key findings to patients. Visage developed its new Video Reports feature with NYU Langone Health, which already had over 70 rads create more than 1k video reports, and found it to be valuable for both patients and referring physicians.
Patient Readiness – We’ve covered plenty of studies detailing how patients want to review their radiology reports, but struggle to understand them. We’ve also seen video communication and patient portals gain increasingly prominent roles in patient care. Based on those factors, Visage’s new Video Reports seem to have a solid product-market fit… if only patients were the decision makers.
Radiologist Adjustments – Visage’s Video Reports will expand radiologists’ reporting audience to patients for the first time, which would require mindset changes (simple language, referrer etiquette) and add workflow steps (rads would have to create two reports). These adjustments might initially make video reports a better fit for the most patient-centric radiology teams, but that could change over time. Plus, the Video Reports tool comes standard with Visage 7, so it will be available if/when the other groups change their mind.
The Video Trend – Given the telehealth and patient engagement revolutions taking place, it’s a solid bet that all types of clinicians will be expected to increase their digital / virtual patient interactions in the future. For radiologists, this might come in the form of Visage-style recorded videos or real-time primary care teleconsultations like MGH piloted earlier this year, but more patient-centric communications are coming.
The Takeaway – Visage’s new Video Reporting feature might be a small part of the overall Visage 7 platform, and its initial adoption might also be relatively small given most rad groups’ focus on productivity. However, this “small” video feature could prove to be part of a very big change in how radiologists engage with their patients.
