Computer-assisted radiology reporting: quality of reports.

Automated medical communication systems for patient care usually enhance timeliness and retrievability. The effect of automated systems on communication quality has not been sufficiently measured. The radiology reports produced with the automated radiology reporting system at the Johns Hopkins Hospital were evalueate for quality and compared to reports produced by dictation. No differences in quality between computer-generated and dictated reports were detected by three consultant radiologists using a specially designed quality rating system.