Addendum Radiology Report

An addendum is sometimes issued by a radiologist in a report when there is additional information he wants to convey.  An addendum is issued separately from the original report.  It may be added immediately after the initial report or days to weeks after.  The addendum report may be short or multiple paragraphs.

One of the most common reasons for a radiologist to issue an addendum report is when prior studies become available for comparison.  The radiologist will than compare the current study to the prior one which has come in.  This may be important for treatment.  Particularly if findings are changing from the prior test.

Another common reason is when there is a typo in the report. This happens because radiologists often use speech recognition software to dictate reports.   Speech recognition is far from perfect and radiologists don’t always catch the mistakes.  An addendum is than issued to clarify a typo or a sentence which makes no sense.

Radiologists sometimes issue an addendum when a finding that was not mentioned originally needs to be added.  This is most commonly when they look again for some reason, such as when a referring doctor calls with more history or information.   In these cases, a finding in the context of appropriate history becomes more important.

Radiologists add addendums when some technical descriptions about the procedure name or the way it was done need to be added for billing purposes.  This may be as simple as contrast was given or more involved describing how an ultrasound was done.  This is often requested by the billing service or the group administrators.

An addendum is added by a radiologist to a report when a referring physician requests a statement about something that was not mentioned in the report.  They feel it’s important and want it discussed in the report.  For example, a surgical procedure done and how no complication is seen.  An operation for cancer in the abdomen and that no recurrent tumor is seen.

Those are some of the more common reasons but I am sure there are others I have not mentioned.  Sometimes the radiologist will actually call the referring physician with the addendum when it is important for management.  Addendums can contain important treatment implications, especially if there has been change from a prior study or a new finding is discovered.