TY - JOUR
T1 - The Radiologist’s Gaze
T2 - Mapping Three-Dimensional Visual Search in Computed Tomography of the Abdomen and Pelvis
AU - Kelahan, Linda Caroline
AU - Fong, Allan
AU - Blumenthal, Joseph
AU - Kandaswamy, Swaminathan
AU - Ratwani, Raj M.
AU - Filice, Ross W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine.
PY - 2019/4/15
Y1 - 2019/4/15
N2 - A radiologist’s search pattern can directly influence patient management. A missed finding is a missed opportunity for intervention. Multiple studies have attempted to describe and quantify search patterns but have mainly focused on chest radiographs and chest CTs. Here, we describe and quantify the visual search patterns of 17 radiologists as they scroll through 6 CTs of the abdomen and pelvis. Search pattern tracings varied among individuals and remained relatively consistent per individual between cases. Attendings and trainees had similar eye metric statistics with respect to time to first fixation (TTFF), number of fixations in the region of interest (ROI), fixation duration in ROI, mean saccadic amplitude, or total number of fixations. Attendings had fewer numbers of fixations per second versus trainees (p < 0.001), suggesting efficiency due to expertise. In those cases that were accurately interpreted, TTFF was shorter (p = 0.04), the number of fixations per second and number of fixations in ROI were higher (p = 0.04, p = 0.02, respectively), and fixation duration in ROI was increased (p = 0.02). We subsequently categorized radiologists as “scanners” or “drillers” by both qualitative and quantitative methods and found no differences in accuracy with most radiologists being categorized as “drillers.” This study describes visual search patterns of radiologists in interpretation of CTs of the abdomen and pelvis to better approach future endeavors in determining the effects of manipulations such as fatigue, interruptions, and computer-aided detection.
AB - A radiologist’s search pattern can directly influence patient management. A missed finding is a missed opportunity for intervention. Multiple studies have attempted to describe and quantify search patterns but have mainly focused on chest radiographs and chest CTs. Here, we describe and quantify the visual search patterns of 17 radiologists as they scroll through 6 CTs of the abdomen and pelvis. Search pattern tracings varied among individuals and remained relatively consistent per individual between cases. Attendings and trainees had similar eye metric statistics with respect to time to first fixation (TTFF), number of fixations in the region of interest (ROI), fixation duration in ROI, mean saccadic amplitude, or total number of fixations. Attendings had fewer numbers of fixations per second versus trainees (p < 0.001), suggesting efficiency due to expertise. In those cases that were accurately interpreted, TTFF was shorter (p = 0.04), the number of fixations per second and number of fixations in ROI were higher (p = 0.04, p = 0.02, respectively), and fixation duration in ROI was increased (p = 0.02). We subsequently categorized radiologists as “scanners” or “drillers” by both qualitative and quantitative methods and found no differences in accuracy with most radiologists being categorized as “drillers.” This study describes visual search patterns of radiologists in interpretation of CTs of the abdomen and pelvis to better approach future endeavors in determining the effects of manipulations such as fatigue, interruptions, and computer-aided detection.
KW - Body imaging
KW - CT
KW - Drillers
KW - Eye tracking
KW - Scanners
KW - Visual search
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U2 - 10.1007/s10278-018-0121-8
DO - 10.1007/s10278-018-0121-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 30291478
AN - SCOPUS:85054721044
VL - 32
SP - 234
EP - 240
JO - Journal of Digital Imaging
JF - Journal of Digital Imaging
SN - 0897-1889
IS - 2
ER -