Phone call interruptions are distracting for radiologists, but it's not a straightforward process to quantify the "cost" of these interruptions, said presenter Dr. Booth Aldred from the University of Utah.
In their project, the researchers sought to determine the objective costs of these interruptions using mobile eye-tracking technology. Initially, the group hoped to discover that distractions lead to more errors, but the study was underpowered and those results weren't significant. They did find, though, that the interruptions added extensive time to radiologist interpretations and also led to aberrations in search patterns.
"Some radiologists have methods in place to account for interruption, while most simply adjust accordingly without much thought or planning," Aldred told AuntMinnie.com. "Obviously an interruption has an inherent time cost -- that is the direct time spent dealing with the interruption."
The team is trying to evaluate what happens after the interruption and how it affects the radiologist, he said.
"A single disruption may seem arbitrary, but in the course of a day, a week, a year ... this has a significant impact, especially in academics and amongst residents/fellows," Aldred said.
Fortunately, telephone calls will not be allowed to distract attendees from hearing all about the group's work in this Thursday presentation.
The researchers will also be running an experiment in the education area each day at RSNA 2016 in the Medical Image Perception Lab. Prizes -- typically raffles for Amazon gift cards -- will be awarded for each experiment, Aldred said.
