Image perception: Are radiologists akin to MLB batters?

A radiologist’s perception when viewing a complex MR image may be akin to a Major League Baseball (MLB) batter reading the stitches on a fastball, according to researchers exploring exactly how diagnostic interpretations are made. The baseball metaphor works because eye-tracking studies have shown that radiologists are able to discriminate between normal and abnormal stacks of 26 T2-weighted images from prostate MRI in as little as 48 milliseconds per section, said neuroscientist Robert Alexander, MD, of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, in an interview with AuntMinnie.com. Similarly, expert batters discriminate between different types of pitches (eg, a curve ball vs. a fastball) in under 200 milliseconds, he noted. “We know that if you do have a very high level of expertise at a task, you can get to a point where it’s almost astounding how quickly you can process things,” Alexander said. Alexander was co-lead author of a significant paper published in 2022 on mandating limits on workload, duty, and speed in radiology. He  said complicating these investigations is that trainees have been shown to perform as well at times as expert radiologists. In August last year, Alexander and colleagues conducted a psychophysical and eye-tracking study aimed at quantifying the gaze dynamics used by professional radiologists to detect abnormalities in medical images. The study involved nine individuals with no medical imaging experience, 11 radiology re...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Advanced Visualization Source Type: news