1	Spine Assistant Initial Impressions of a Tool to Efficiently Generate Spine Reports P. Moin, MD Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California
2	Disclosure The author has no financial disclosures to report.
3	Background Evaluation of the anatomy and pathology of the spine can be a tedious process with specific reporting requirements for each level. In practice, accepted descriptive terminology is not always followed in reporting. This creates the potential for miscommunication and errors both in reporting and subsequent clinical management.
4	Introduction We introduce a new reporting tool and report its potential effect on reporting workflow.
5	Aims
6	Guidelines
7	Site Overview
8	Site Components 1) Report Checklist 2) Interactive Spine 3) Reporting Window
9	Report Checklist The two right and two left columns are clickable to open editable text boxes.
10	Report Checklist Each clickable entry opens editable text boxes. As each text box is completed, the text is copied into the reporting window for later review and editing.
11	Interactive Spine
12	Reporting Window The reporting window contains three tabs. The first section is populated as the report checklist is completed.
13	Reporting Window The second section is a table format of disc pathology and related anatomic structures. It is populated by interacting with the spine diagram or by directly clicking on a field. The third section consists of the report impression.
14	Report: Table of Findings
15	Report: Abnormal Findings
16	Guided Walkthrough
17	Clinical Use Analysis of website statistics has thus far yielded a monthly average of just over 1000 hits since initial deployment in December of 2008. Users are located primarily in the US, but use has been recorded in several European countries, Russia, and Asia. Both governmental and private users have been identified.
18	Feedback A survey of neuroradiology attendings, fellows, and residents at our home institution has thus far yielded positive reviews of compliance to nomenclature and utility of reporting features. Similar positive feedback has been collected from orthopedic surgeons, and neurosurgeons regarding the structured table format of reporting disc pathology.
19	Summary We introduce a web-based report generation tool to quickly, systematically, and efficiently produce spine reports that are compliant with accepted nomenclature and classification of disc pathology. We hope this tool, with continued improvement, will prove useful for those in training and in practice and will be integrated into teaching and clinical use. Feedback has thus far been encouraging.
20	Thank you Thank you for your time and attention. The current version of the site may be accessed at: www.SpineAssistant.com Correspondence: pmoin@usc.edu