Significant Number Of Misses and Mistakes May Occur When Radiologists Increase Reporting Speeds.

A study published by Sokolovskaya et al in the Journal of the American College of Radiology a significant amount of misses and major reporting errors occur when radiologists increase imaging reporting speeds.

The authors selected a sample set of 53 abdominal-pelviic CT scans of variable complexity that were performed at a teaching hospital. They classified the CT scans into 4 categories based on their level of complexity, with level 4 representing the most-complex cases. Five attending radiologists participated in the study. Radiologists were randomly assigned a set of 12 studies, of varying complexity, to dictate at their normal speed, and a separate set of 12 studies, of similar complexity, to read at a speed that was twice as fast as their normal speed.

Reading at the faster speed resulted in more misses for 4 of the 5 radiologists. The total number of major misses for the 5 radiologists, when they reported at the faster speed, was 16 of 60 reported cases, versus 6 of 60 reported cases at normal speed; P = .032. The average interpretation error rate of major misses among the 5 radiologists reporting at the faster speed was 26.6%, compared with 10% at normal speed.

The authors report a significant positive correlation between faster reading speed and the number of major misses and interpretation errors.

J Am Coll Radiol. 2015 Jul;12(7):683-8