Diagnostic Reading #27: Five “Must Read” Articles on Medical Imaging
Reading Time: 4 minutes read
In the news: reducing diagnostic errors and avoiding burnout.
This week’s article in Diagnostic Reading include: diagnostic errors may decrease with new training course; AI uses MRI results to predict diabetes risk; tips to avoid post-pandemic burnout; DBT + AI improves breast screening; and quantitative MRI measurement may vary.
Reducing diagnostic error in radiology starts with education – AuntMinnie
Medical students who learn about diagnostic errors during their training will gain awareness of the causes of mistakes and can identify steps to reduce patient harm in daily work, according to a study published in Academic Radiology. Researchers at Penn State University created an elective course for medical students that focused on diagnostic errors and found that students responded positively to the course and would employ skills they learned into practice. Previous research indicates that diagnostic errors account for up to 70% of all medical errors. Read the blog on “15 strategies to help minimize radiological errors.”
AI model predicts diabetes risk using MRI results – Cardiovascular Business
Researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that is capable of predicting a person’s overall risk of diabetes, according to a study published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. The team’s model reviews a patient’s MRI results and measures the amount of fat surrounding their heart, testing the advanced algorithm on more than 45,000 scans and noting that it achieved an impressive accuracy. In addition, the AI tool has a built-in quality control feature that can warn users when an especially high level of uncertainty surrounds its findings. Read the blog on “AI features to adopt today in radiology”.
How to avoid post-pandemic burnout: 5 top leadership tips – Health Management
Evidence suggests that burnout among physicians, nurses and other clinicians is not only a serious and prevalent problem, but a costly one as well. Burnout is associated with higher rates of major medical errors, turnover and reduced time spent working directly in clinical care. In this article, an expert offers steps to help address the problem of burnout, including specific tips to reduce the causes and effects; for example, creating a wellness committee. Read the blog on mindfulness meditation for radiologists by Dr. Donald J. Flemming, Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Combining DBT with AI-based support may be key to cost-effective breast screening programs – Health Imaging
Radiologists’ reading performance significantly improves when using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based support system during digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) screening exams, according to research published in Radiology. Though DBT-based programs typically include two views per breast—increasing the number of images to read as well as patients’ radiation dose—single-view screening combined with AI was found to improve interpretations while reducing costs and dose.
Study finds variations in quantitative MRI scanners’ measurements – Axis Imaging News
Quantitative MRI, which obtains numerical measurements during scans, can potentially offer greater accuracy, repeatability, and speed—but rigorous quality control is needed for it to reach its full potential, according to researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The study compared MRI scanner measurements of a value called T1—a property of water molecules that can depend on the surrounding tissue—and found that these measurements can be subject to significant bias and variation.
