SPECIAL EDITION
Collaboration
Technology builds exhausted rads
Informatics applications push imagers to peak efficiency . . . and beyond
By Merlina Trevino
After years of honing themselves and their technology to operate at peak efficiency, radiologists are finding that they may have done the job too well. Faced with growing case loads, a shortage of peers, and an increasing reliance on sometimes awkward informatics, many imagers say that their work-related quality of life has taken a severe turn downward.
Radiologists at the Symposium for Computer Applications in Radiology in May produced a litany of the woes that have resulted from "increased productivity." They ranged from less time for teaching residents to more time spent on transcription duties.
Speech recognition and how it might-or might not-increase a radiology department's productivity proved to be one of the hottest topics at SCAR. Attendees mentioned growing resistance to adding the task of transcription to an already long list of duties.
And time-strapped radiologists no longer have anywhere to hide, said Dr. Michael T. Modic, chair of radiology at the Cleveland Clinic. To prove his argument, Modic took an emergency cell phone call during a keynote address at SCAR and interpreted a head CT scan at the podium. Radiologists are now expected to view more scans at more times of the day and night, he said, a point that was not lost on the enthusiastic audience.
Modic quoted one radiologist who said, "I feel like a rented mule."
