What Is ReadingScan and What Does It Do?

Updated

ReadingScan is a web tool that turns a radiology report — MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, or PET — into plain-English explanations of each finding. You upload your written report, up to five photos from the same exam, or both, and get back a per-finding breakdown with an urgency label and suggested questions for your doctor. It fits people who already have a report in hand and want to understand it before (or between) appointments. It is explicitly not medical advice and not for emergencies.

What you can upload

Input Notes
Written report PDF or a patient-portal screenshot — described as giving the most complete reading
Scan photos Up to 5 images from the same exam; pick the slices your doctor pointed out
Both together Stated as working best
File formats PDF, JPG, PNG, WebP · up to 20 MB each
Only have a CD? The site suggests converting DICOM to JPG for free

What comes back

Each finding is rewritten as a plain sentence, tagged with how urgent it is, and paired with what to ask your doctor. The site's knee MRI sample shows the shape of the output:

  • Radiologist wrote: "Oblique tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus… approximately 8 mm."
  • ReadingScan says: "Small tear in the inner knee cushion" — labeled Worth monitoring, with the note that tears like this usually come with age rather than one injury, and are usually treated with physical therapy first.
  • "Grade 2 chondromalacia patellae" becomes "Early cartilage softening behind the kneecap" — Worth monitoring.
  • "Small joint effusion" becomes "Small amount of fluid in the joint" — No concern, described as a normal reaction to the two findings above.

The report also answers the worry behind the question — for example, "Will I need surgery for this?" gets a "probably not" with the reasoning that physical therapy comes first, and surgery comes up if the knee locks or rehab stalls.

How the reading is structured

The sample report is laid out in two parts:

  1. What did they find? — urgency label, plain-English sentence, and the detailed findings list.
  2. What you were worried about — a direct answer to a common concern tied to those findings.

Reports for X-rays, CT, ultrasound, and PET are described as following the same layout.

Privacy and access

  • Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • You can delete your data anytime.
  • The site states it never sells health data.
  • No credit card is required for your first analysis, and there is a free preview.
  • A pricing page exists, but the amount is not stated in the material available here — check the pricing page directly for current cost.

When it's a good fit — and when it isn't

Good fit: you have a finished report and want a plain-language first pass, a sense of which findings are routine versus worth raising, and a list of questions to bring to your appointment.

Not a fit: anything urgent. The site states it is not for emergencies — if you have acute symptoms, contact a clinician or emergency services rather than uploading a report. It also does not replace your doctor's interpretation; treat the output as preparation for that conversation, not a substitute for it.