Medical image perception: evaluating the role of experience

The goal of this research was to understand the influence of experience on how radiologists search medical images for lesions and how search is affected by providing computer-aided detection prompts. Two studies will be discussed. The first study recorded the eye-position of 6 radiologists with different amounts of experience as they searched 20 mammography cases for lesions. Detection performance was measured using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis and visual search patterns were characterized. The second study recorded eye-position as radiologists with different degrees of experience searched mammograms with and without lesion prompts. Radiologists with more experience tend to find lesions faster and have more efficient search patterns than those with less experience. Positive decisions for all observers have longer dwells than negative decisions. Missed lesions receive longer dwells than lesion free areas. Experienced radiologists perform more complete searches prior to prompt availability and access prompts later in search than those with less experience. Visual search is influenced significantly by amount of training and experience reading specific types of images. This skill may or may not be easily transferable from/to different types of images. This is especially important when computer aids are used to help the radiologist detect lesions by providing prompts on the image.

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